 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and Mrs. Reagan, accompanied by Congressman and Mrs. Lago-Marcino. Mr. President, Mrs. Reagan, Congressman and Mrs. Gallagley, and of course our own Bob and Norma Lago-Marcino. Mr. President, it's always exciting to welcome home a local boy who's made good. We in Santa Barbara are certainly honored to have you in our neighborhood again. It is my distinct pleasure and privilege this afternoon to introduce a man who has devoted much of his life to public service, service in his hometown of Ohio, service in Sacramento, and service in Washington, D.C., and the service that has touched and improved our area in many ways, environmentally as well as economically. His peers have called him a hardworking legislator, an adept and intelligent veteran politician. But most of all, he is one who will continue to provide us with the solid leadership that we need in Washington to carry out the programs that have been so successful for the last eight years. I think what is most significant about Bob Lago-Marcino's work is that in the Congress of the United States is that he represents all the people in this very diverse district. I'd like to give you a personal insight to this man. One of my daughters, Colleen, was fortunate enough to work as a summer intern in Bob's office in Lago-Marcino while she was a college student. And if you know teenagers, you know how critical they can be of adults and how they rate them on their idealistic scale. I want to tell you when she finished that summer, Bob had her respect and admiration and it was the highest and still is. And one incident, I think, shows the type of representation that he gives. One of Colleen's assignments was to research and to make draft replies to constituents who had asked for some information from the congressman. One particular letter she set aside for a few days because she felt she had to do something else that was more important. Well, she did get the letter to Bob's desk with the others where he does revisions and checks the draft. But in a short order, the letter came back to her with a question from congressman why this constituents reply had been delayed. And that's the kind of representation that we have in Congress. And that is why not only Republicans but Democrats and independent voters as well have put him back in office again and again. And I'm constantly amazed how often Bob makes that 3,000 mile trip to meet his constituents. And they know that they don't have to show their party affiliation or registration to get his attention and his concern for their interests. It's given to those who back in politically as well as those who do not. Bob is a key player in Washington. He serves on the House Interior and Foreign Affairs Committees. And of course, as a member of the House Republican leadership, he meets weekly with the President while Congress is in session. That kind of seniority cannot be replaced in Washington, DC by someone who will need on-the-job training in the nation's capital. It is my honor to introduce you to the man who has served us for 13 years in the state Senate, the past 14 years in Washington as our congressman, and who will serve at least the next two years as our representative in Congress. Congressman Bob Lagomacino. Thank you, Gene. If it wasn't for the hot sun and the fact that my face is probably red from it, you'd see me blushing after that introduction. Mr. President, Mrs. Reagan, my good friends, the Galaglis, my very close colleague, Elton Galagly, and the House of Representatives, and Janice, as I say, are very good friends in Washington. Norma, my wife, I couldn't do it without her at all. Probably wouldn't even try. And thank all of you, all 1,000 of you for coming today. This is absolutely incredible. And of course, the committee for putting this all on. Now, I've been, as Gene told you and most of you know already, I've been around a while, been in the state Senate and then the Washington on the Washington scene for 14 and a half years now. So I'm not so much of a novice that I think you came here to hear me. Although you can do that from time to time. Our next speaker, in fact, is the reason you did come. A man I've had the privilege to know now for over 24 years. Hard to believe that that has been that long, but it has been. I was already in the state Senate at the time 1964 when I first met him and introduced him to a crowd in Ventura County. But I recognized immediately, as many did, that here was a man with a gift, a gift for leadership, for persuasion, and for integrity. I thought to myself, this guy will go far. If he ever decides to run for office. Well, history has borne out that thought more than I could have anticipated. And more perhaps than anyone could have anticipated. It wasn't long after that first meeting, not even two years that Ronald Reagan became Governor of California, defeating a two term incumbent to boot. The rest, as they say, is history. People in the state legislature, and I was there, didn't know what to make of this new governor. Some of them saw him as a flash in the pan. I remember one of my colleagues saying, you know, Bob, we're here forever, the guy down in the corner office, they come and go. He won't last, they said. The press underestimated him as well. Still do. But anyone who knew him would not underestimate him. Ronald Reagan brought a breath of fresh air to Sacramento that was long needed. He was easily reelected, beating a man many considered to be the smartest politician in the state, if not in the nation, Jesse Unruh. It was during his second term as governor that he really began to shine. That things really began to happen. And I was privileged to be able to work very closely with him on a number of major bills. It was a watershed time in California politics, and he really literally rewrote the book on state politics. Some even talked of higher offers for this man. Others didn't take it too seriously, again. In 1974, when I had the opportunity to run for Congress, I went down to that corner office and I asked Governor Reagan what I should do. And he said, well, we're doing pretty good here. Do whatever you want to, I'll help you, but I just soon you stayed. We're doing okay here. And I remember saying to him somewhat irreverently, well, why are you trying so hard to go back to Washington? But I did run. He did help me. He did encourage me, and I have been there ever since. It actually took another six years for that to come to pass when he, with a twinkle in his eye at that same meeting said, see you in Washington. But in January of 1981, I found myself, Norm and I found ourselves, at the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan. My prophecy had come true. A lot of things have happened in those almost eight years now. An assassination attempt, a miraculous recovery, a tax cut, even more of a miracle. Another election, and the Russians at the peace table after six long years. You know, this president, this president who people, some people said was not interested in reaching agreement with the Soviets reached the best agreement we've ever reached with him. You did it, Mr. President. The Reagan years will go down in history as a watershed event in American government. You brought a common sense approach to government. You brought back pride in America, and you brought us the longest stretch of peace and prosperity in modern times. I have to keep rewriting my speeches. I used to say 67 months, 68. Was it now over 70? As I said, I was in elected office before you, Mr. President, and God willing, I will be in it after you leave. But only because the Constitution prevents you from running again. Mr. President, you have brought our nation safely through one of the most perilous periods in history, and you and Nancy did it with humor and good grace and masterful leadership. God willing, your legacy will continue for the next eight years, and I hope to be there with George Bush to do it. Thank you, Mr. President. Robert, I thank you very much. Councilwoman Norma, Deleglies, and my roommate. Well, I thank you all today. I realize, looking around at the neckties, that I'm out of uniform. But you have to, if you haven't been informed, we have just come from another fundraiser down of the San Fernando Valley there raising money just generally for the party, which is always useful to all of us concerned. And there, the uniform was prescribed. So I brought a coat along so that I could put a coat on afterward. And since in Arizona, a bolo is legally now a necktie, I figured that I can get by. Well, we're here today because we support an outstanding congressman, our congressman, and that includes me, because I'm in the district too, Bob Lagomassino. The job that Bob has done these past 14 years, believe me, has earned my vote this year. Sure, he has a tough race, his toughest ever. But I'm confident he'll win. We Santa Barbarians know that Bob didn't go to Washington to make big government ever bigger, or to mess around with our defenses. He's in Washington to help build a stronger and sounder America. And that's why on November 8th, we'll choose George Bush for president and Bob Lagomassino for Congress. Now, it's no secret that when I'm strolling down the street in Washington, the House of Representatives isn't the friendliest house on the block. But it sure would be there if there were more people there like Bob Lagomassino in it. He's a stand-up guy, and he stood with George Bush and me time and again for what's right when too many of his colleagues turned away. The freedom-loving people of Nicaragua know Bob. He's their champion. He knows that they thirst after the cool waters of liberty. And he's made heroic efforts to satisfy their thirst by working to aid the freedom fighters who want to free them from communist domination. Well, I don't know about you, but when it comes to freedom in Central America, I like a stand-up guy like Bob. Bob's also a dedicated supporter of America's quest to free itself from the shadow of nuclear assault time after time and year after year. He has voted for the Strategic Defense Initiative. That is a defense plan that kills weapons, not people. But while Bob was standing up for our space shield, the House leadership wanted to slash away at it so they could find more money to spend on their pet projects. Well, I don't know about you, but when it comes to national defense, I like a stand-up guy. And that's Bob. Some people say it's time for a change. Well, I agree. For 52 of the last 56 years, the House of Representatives has been in the hands of the other party. 46 of those 56 years, the other party has controlled both houses of the Congress. Now, I've heard a lot in this campaign from the other side about the evils of deficit spending, and I'm responsible. Well, Congress is the only one in government that can spell and spend a dime. The president can't spend any. Congress makes the budget. You bet it's time for a change. We can solve our spending problems, and let me tell you something else about that more than half a century, in which every 10 years, they have been in charge when it came to reapportionment of the districts throughout the country. And in 48 of those 56 years, there were deficits, each one of those 48 years. Four of the eight years that there weren't deficits were in the term of Dwight Eisenhower, who for two years had a Republican Congress in both houses. The only time that a Republican president has had that, well, I was fortunate I had six years of my term with a Senate. And I have to tell you, I don't think we could have gotten what we did, and the reforms that we did had that not been true. But now we're back in that with both houses on the other side. We can solve budget problems. When it comes to Congress, the American people know that if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. And the solution is to reelect Bob Lagomassino and elect 434 others like him to the House of Representatives. That's a tall order, but I have a good feeling about this year's election, particularly after seeing a speech last week that I found moving and yet inspiring. I don't remember when I've ever been as impressed with an orator, and I know he's going to be an even more impressive president, George Bush. George spoke about completing a mission, the mission that he and I began side by side eight years ago. And look how far we've come since then. 17 and a half million new jobs, hundreds of thousands of new businesses, a greater proportion of Americans that worked than ever before. I had to go to Washington in this job to find out how the statisticians determine figures about employment and unemployment. Did you know that the considered potential pool of employables is everybody, male and female, from 16 years of age and up? And today, the highest percentage of that total pool is employed than ever in our history, 62.6%. And that pool includes all the young people that are still going to school and in college and so forth, the people that are retired. But that's the percentage of that overall segment of our society. Then there's the restoration of our national defenses, the recovery of our national pride, an INF treaty that abolishes an entire class, as Bob has told you, of US and Soviet missiles. And just a few years after the liberation of Grenada, the Soviets are pulling out of Afghanistan. Now, I want you to know that I know that some people have expressed a fear that maybe I'm being taken in. And now that I'm just not looking at them as plainly as I should, well, I want you to know that I have made the general secretary very familiar with the stalwart American term. Trust everybody, but cut the cards. I want to ask you a question. Is this a record we can show proudly to our fellow citizens in California? Well, we've done a lot, but as George said the other night, the mission is not complete. There's more to do. Appointing more judges who know the difference between criminals and victims. Shutting down the drug trade. I have a special assistant in that. But more work for the cause of freedom around the world, including in Central America. And of course, developing and deploying a technology that will protect humanity from the specter of nuclear war, the Strategic Defense Initiative. And how about a furlough for the Pledge of Allegiance? And yet, we must not forget that all we've done and all we are on the very threshold of doing can quickly be lost. We Californians saw it happen in the years of the last liberal administration in our state. Things got so bad that we had to rise up and say no more to the soaring taxes that were strangling economic growth and crushing the budgets of ordinary families. So Proposition 13 was passed. We don't want to have to go through that again nationally. And there's one way to make sure we won't. George Bush is going to America with his own proposition number one, no new taxes. I have to say one thing here that must be said. If you remember back there when we were getting on our feet after the father who preceded the son as governor, and we began to accumulate surpluses, and some of you will remember every time we accumulated a surplus, we gave it back to the people. And the last one we gave back was $850 million. And if we need a difference between the two parties, I will always remember a very reputable leader on the Democratic side of our Senate who stormed into my office after my announcement about giving that money back. And he said, giving that money back to the people is an unnecessary expenditure of public funds. Well, make no mistake. Our economy and our national defenses are strong, but they're also under threat. They're threatened by those who want to use the law to engineer the changes in our nation that the American people do not need and do not want and that would hurt. Our liberal friends seem to love to fiddle around making big government even bigger, but they never seem to achieve their goals. And so they fiddle around some more, but they still don't get anywhere. And then before you know it, they fiddle around so much that they've sent the ship of state into dry dock. I know George Bush knows, and after all, we were called in to get the ship of state seaworthy again. And the way to keep it seaworthy is to have a crew of Republicans in the Congress and George Bush at the helm. Now, Bob will be critical in that effort, and so will a great senator who will continue to be a great senator after the dust is settled on November 9th, Pete Wilson. And let me add one other thing. Our statewide election this year is also critical. In two years, it will be time for the 1990 census. The results of that census will determine the composition of California's congressional districts. Now, we all remember what happened after the last census. The opposition controlled the two state houses and the governor's mansion, so they redrew the map. And what did they do? They shattered the state of California. Each congressional district looked like a piece of broken glass. But we can make sure such a travesty doesn't happen again by working with our state legislative leaders, Pat Nolan and Ken Maddy, to elect good Republicans to the state assembly and the state Senate. That's vital. I'm going to do my part, and I know you will too. Every once in a while, I feel we should all be reminded that one of the great secrets of the success of this country is that we are a federation of sovereign states. And our opponents over those long, 50 years, odd years when they were in control have tried to usurp and take away from the states more and more power to reduce the states to administrative districts of the federal government. Well, we've been having a program for almost eight years now called federalism, in which we have been restoring as much as we can the power and authority that properly belongs to the states and never should have been taken from. And doing all these things, I'm going to do my part, and I know you will too. Yes, there are still promises to keep. There's the promise to keep America strong. There's the promise to expand the frontiers of freedom. There's the promise to continue freeing the creative, enterprising energies of the American people. And with our help, on November 9, George Bush, Pete Wilson, and Bob Lagomassino will get to work on keeping those promises. So now let's us get to work on getting them to work. I don't want to be even those last few weeks there without Bob Lagomassino in the Congress. Thank you all for all you've done, and God bless you all. I have a t-shirt I'd like to present to you, Mr. President. Look on the back. Congressman Bob Lagomassino, I'm backing Bob. Since I'm out of uniform at this event, you suppose maybe I could be out of uniform and wear this at the first leadership meeting when we get back? Sure. I hope so. Thank you.