Ed Reinecke? (possible opponent to Jerry Brown in 1974) (attorney, house)

[atijd]

Hello all! I am pleased to meet you guys. I have a quick question. Do any of you folks know about a gentleman by the name of Edwin Reinecke? He was once referred to as "Reagan's second hand man" and apparently was a major GOP contender for the 1974 gubernatorial race in CA. If you know about this gentleman, do you remember the circumstances surrounding his defeat via Watergate?

I would like for people from both a right-wing and a left-wing perspective to respond to this. However, both sides MUST keep it cordial and stay on topic.

[Unsettomati]

Originally Posted by atijd

Hello all! I am pleased to meet you guys. I have a quick question. Do any of you folks know about a gentleman by the name of Edwin Reinecke? He was once referred to as "Reagan's second hand man" and apparently was a major GOP contender for the 1974 gubernatorial race in CA. If you know about this gentleman, do you remember the circumstances surrounding his defeat via Watergate?

I would like for people from both a right-wing and a left-wing perspective to respond to this. However, both sides MUST keep it cordial and stay on topic.

Well, he was Reagan's (second) lieutenant governor.

After his federal perjury conviction, he was ineligible under California law to hold state public office.

[atijd]

Hmm. Were you alive under him? If so, do you remember him trying to run for governor in 1974? When was his perjury conviction?

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by atijd

If you know about this gentleman, do you remember the circumstances surrounding his defeat via Watergate?

I had to Google him.

Reinecke had risen quickly in Republican politics, winning a seat in Congress in 1964 as a 40-year-old businessman with no political experience. The plainspoken Caltech graduate, who once called the House of Representatives a “posh pigeonhole,” made no secret of his aspirations to be governor and ran in 1974 while still serving as lieutenant governor.

He doggedly continued his campaign after he was indicted for allegedly lying about conversations with Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, about an offer from a telecommunications company to underwrite the 1972 Republican National Convention.

By the time Reinecke was convicted on July 28, 1974, of a single count of perjury, he had lost the primary to Houston Flournoy, who was later defeated by Democrat Jerry Brown. Reinecke clung to his position as lieutenant governor until half an hour before he received an 18-month suspended sentence.

In handing down the sentence, the federal judge called Reinecke “a victim of your own selfish ambition.”

“I still do not feel that I am guilty,” Reinecke told the judge.

The conviction was eventually overturned because of a technicality: the Senate Judiciary Committee had not officially published a rule permitting a one-man quorum, and the special Watergate prosecutor had not established that more than one senator attended the hearing...

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...225-story.html

[pathrunner]

I vaguely remember this man but in light of what happened with him, he's likely not a viable candidate in these modern times, nor would he have much credibility. Media has a way of swaying things one way or the other, and it's also likely that muckrakers could dig up more dirt. Also, he believes he did nothing wrong and for me that is a red flag.

[atijd]

He apparently did an interview in 1986:

https://archive.org/details/maverick...e/n21/mode/2up

[atijd]

In addition, if he had not been indicted at the time do you believe he would've been the GOP nominee and beaten Jerry Brown?