Wallace: Reagan's son pushes for a GOP comeback

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The pressure of being the son of a Republican icon has never been easy for Michael Reagan.

"The hardest part is people seeing you" as a reflection of Ronald Reagan, the 67-year-old son of the nation's 40th president said.

Reagan, Ronald Reagan's oldest son, has never held elective office and doesn't enjoy anything close to the fame of his actor parents. Still, Michael Reagan said he has something to contribute to today's Republican Party in hopes of getting it back on a winning track.

When he addresses the Manatee County Republican Party's annual Lincoln Day dinner in Bradenton tonight, Reagan said he will outline what the party needs to do to restore itself to the party his father led through the 1970s and 1980s.

"I know what needs to be done," said Reagan's son from the politician's first marriage with actress Jane Wyman.

At the bare minimum Reagan, who lives in California, said he can call out others who twist his father's legacy and words to suit their purposes.

"One thing I've come to not like so much is that I keep hearing people say what they think Ronald Reagan would do," said Michael Reagan, who recounted campaigning with his dad for governor in the 1960s. "I can say, 'That's not Ronald Reagan.'"

Michael Reagan said one of the party's biggest problems in 2012 was infighting. He said conservatives spent so much time attacking each other that a more moderate Mitt Romney won the party's nomination.

"We had no message and no messenger," Reagan said in a telephone interview.

While Michael Reagan said he knows politics because of his father, he sees himself as more than just a voice of his father's legacy. He has hosted a national talk show, won powerboat racing competitions and devoted his life to helping adopted and foster children through a group he helped create called the Michael Reagan Center.

"I've worked for everything I've got," Michael Reagan said. "That's how my parents taught me."

Still, he has not run for office himself.

"I put my wife and children above everyone else," Reagan said. "I've lived in the public eye my whole life. I didn't want that for my wife and children."

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The Lincoln Day Dinner begins at 7 p.m. at the Bradenton Municipal Auditorium, 1005 Barcarrota Blvd., Bradenton. Tickets begin at $100.

For more information, call the Manatee Republican Party at 714-0600.

?Jeremy Wallace can be reached at 361-4966 or jeremy.wallace @heraldtribune.com.

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Source: http://politics.heraldtribune.com/2013/02/15/wallace-reagans-son-pushes-for-a-gop-comeback/

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