Local reaction

Ronald Reagan touched lives in the Inland Northwest and shaped their political leadership as he was helping to reshape the world.

On Saturday, some of those local residents and political leaders said they admired the former president for his commitment to conservative principles.

For his unwavering stand against communism.

For his strong belief in family values.

For his remarkable good humor.

Gretchen Horton Kuch, a longtime Republican activist in Spokane whose first campaign was Reagan’s 1984 re-election, seemed to sum it up best: “He was something else.”

Mike Padden, who first met Reagan in 1976 when he was involved in the Spokane County for Reagan campaign, said the former president had an appeal and a personality that transcended party lines.

“I don’t think he would have sacrificed his core beliefs just to get elected,” said Padden, now a Spokane County District Court judge.

Padden could always joke that he was ahead of his time when he cast a vote for Reagan in the Electoral College in 1976, four years before Reagan would be on the GOP ticket and win the presidency. It was a statement of support for those core Reagan beliefs of anti-communism, limited government and traditional family values.

Two years later, Padden got a chance to meet Reagan in Spokane, and someone pointed out the person who’d cast that Electoral College vote.

“He looked at (the group I was in) and joked, ‘Boy, we sure gave ‘em a great battle,’ ” recalled Padden, who was elected to the state Legislature the same year Reagan was elected president.

Another so-called Reagan baby, Larry Craig, was elected to Congress that year. Now Idaho’s senior senator, Craig called Reagan a remarkable communicator who brought credibility to the theory of conservative, limited government.

“He told Americans to be proud of themselves,” Craig said. “He became America’s father figure at a time when we needed one.”

U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt of Spokane, who regards Reagan as one of his political heroes, believes the former president will be remembered for ending the Cold War by outsmarting the Soviet Union.

“He had such a clear vision of what he knew the country could be and what he wanted the country to be,” Nethercutt said. “He was a champion for freedom and clear-thinking conservatism.”

Many young Republicans in the area were still in diapers or not even born when Reagan became president, but they still look up to him as a hero.

“He was like the grandfather I didn’t get to meet,” said Paul Schafer, a 20-year-old business student and president of Gonzaga University’s College Republicans.

Schafer’s parents and grandparents were active in Republican politics in California and raised him to embrace the same conservatism that Reagan espoused. Some young people aren’t even aware of Reagan’s contributions, said 24-year-old Chrissy Poe, chairwoman of the Spokane Area Young Republicans.

History teachers and college professors often don’t teach about the Reagan era, said Bridget Elliott, president of Washington State University’s College Republicans. Many also are biased against conservative thought, she said.

“Reagan wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade. He dealt with communism and called it evil,” she said.

Opportunity resident Grace Graham, 77, said she was living in California when Reagan was elected governor, and belonged to a club that was invited to Sacramento to have lunch with him.

“He was not snobbish or anything. He came on to me as a very kind person,” said Graham, who reflected on the late president Saturday at the Spokane Valley Eagle’s Lodge.

She thought the Reagan presidency was “just what we needed. We were so happy to have him go from governor to president. It’s hard to believe we saw his movies.”

Spokane Valley resident Daniel Ivanov, whose family emigrated from Lithuania in 1989, said he felt Reagan was a good example of a person who lived up to his potential. People can learn from the late president’s accomplishments, he said.

“He did something with his life,” Ivanov, 22, said as he shared coffee with friends at a Valley Starbucks. “I’d say he more than made an impact on people.”

Superlatives rolled off the lips of Republicans almost from the minute the former president’s death was announced.

“He was, in my view, the greatest American of the post-World War II era and the father of the modern Republican Party,” said Chris Vance, state GOP chairman. “He changed the world.”

On Saturday, even Democrats couldn’t disagree. Washington Democrats gathered in Tacoma for their state convention gasped audibly when it was announced that Reagan had died.

They bowed their heads for a moment of silence.

Delegate Jim Lanham, a state worker from Spokane, said he voted for Reagan the first time, during Reagan’s run against Jimmy Carter in 1980.

“He was a very charismatic man, and we needed one desperately at that time,” Lanham said. “He was up front.”Washington Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt said that in some ways he’s grateful to Reagan.

“He energized the liberals in this state,” Berendt said. “And his brand of conservatism has been rejected here” by an alliance of liberals and moderates.

Republicans, of course, disagreed.

Spokane County Chairwoman Robin Ball, who is visiting Washington, D.C., with her family, said they heard about Reagan’s death while walking past the Washington Monument on the National Mall.

“The one thing that really struck me was, right after we heard that Reagan had passed away, was how quickly the government responded,” Ball said. “Flags dropped to half staff in a matter of minutes.”