Significant Sig and long-time San Diego Alumni Clair W. Burgener passes - Page 2

News - Personal

Monday, September 11, 2006 12:00am

Except for nine months in the state Senate, Burgener labored in the minority party.
The nadir of his career came in his last race for Congress, when his opponent was Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger. “That was the low point in my career, the worst thing I've ever been through in my life,” Burgener told The San Diego Union in 1981. During that campaign, he fretted at the implications of Metzger's candidacy. “I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and I think, 'My God, could this happen?' But then, in the cool light of day, I think it won't, that I'm going to win. My God, I don't represent a bunch of bigots, do I?” Burgener told the Los Angeles Times in 1980.
Burgener trounced Metzger by a 7-to-1 ratio.
Congress was by his own measure not the high point of his career. “I'm a realist,” he told the Union in 1982 as his congressional career came to a close. “I never came back here thinking that I was going to be a key in affecting national policy. I've felt useful to my district and supportive of my political party. But in terms of personal effect on any momentous national event, it's been zero.” Usually a reliable conservative vote, Burgener was not averse to breaking ideological ranks, and became a strong supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.
He was a staunch ally of President Nixon, but broke party ranks in the immediate post-Nixon period. He was among only 29 House Republicans who voted against the confirmation of Nelson Rockefeller as President Ford's vice president. A close friend of Ford's, Burgener said he was troubled by conflicts of interest he saw in Rockefeller's large financial holdings.
Burgener expressed relief at retiring from Congress. By then, he was a key member of the House Appropriations Committee, a member of the House Republican leadership and a longtime ally of President Reagan. “Every time I think about this, I break out in a rash of happiness,” he said after announcing his retirement. After retiring from elective office, Burgener agreed to serve – at the behest of his close friend, then-Gov. Deukmejian – as chairman of the California Republican Party.
Deukmejian also appointed the Fairbanks Ranch resident to the University of California board of regents. Burgener served as that body's chairman in the mid-1990s.
Burgener is survived by his wife Marvia, who lives in San Diego; and two sons, Greg of Cambria and John of Shell Beach.

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