sacramento — Stu Spencer has followed certain guidelines for decades as California's top political consultant.

These signposts helped elect actor Ronald Reagan as California governor and later president, as well as New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, President Ford, Governor Pete Wilson, and hundreds of lesser-known Republican politicians in California and across the country.

The down-to-earth Californian had a habitual sense of humor, a love of the political game, and equated competition with sports, which he also loved. He and his early partner Bill Roberts pioneered the use of targeted mailings and television ads targeting specific groups of voters. But after the election battle was over, he loved hanging out with Democrats and Republicans alike, telling war stories to friends and foes alike, eliciting laughter.

Spencer died Jan. 12 at his home in Palm Desert. He is 97 years old.

One of his strengths was his courage to speak truth to power. One of the guiding principles is the determination to be honest and honest with your clients.

A classic example came in 1976, when a White House aide pulled Spencer into the Oval Office and told Ford what no one else had the courage to say: "Sir. President, please forgive me... but you are -- an activist."

Polls show Ford lost support when he ventured into the campaign trail. So Spencer, the president's chief strategist, hid him in the Rose Garden for several weeks in early fall.

Ford lost to Democrat Jimmy Carter anyway.

Another example is in 1983, President Reagan called the Soviet Union the "evil empire" in a speech. First Lady Nancy Reagan was unhappy and thought her husband was too annoying. She asked Spencer to urge the president to de-escalate the situation.

Nancy started by asking, "Stu, what do you think?" the counselor once recalled to me. "I said, 'He's right. This is an evil empire. But..." Before I could explain the "but," Reagan interrupted. He said: 'That's enough. Mom, what’s for dessert? "

The president softened his rhetoric toward the Soviet Union.

But another of Spencer’s guidelines is to encourage candidates to be themselves. Speak from your heart.

Marty Wilson, a former senior adviser to Governor Wilson (no relation), worked with Spencer for a time before opening his own consulting shop. He recalled taking former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina to meet the guru in 2010 as she prepared to run for U.S. Senate. Fiorina wonders what position she should take on abortion.

"What do you believe?" Spencer asked, according to Wilson. "I don't care if it's pro-life or pro-life. I don't know from semester to semester. But take a stance and stick to it. Be who you are."

Fiorina ran as a pro-life candidate and won the Republican nomination, but lost the general election to incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer.

In 1966, when Reagan first ran for governor, Spencer didn't need encouragement to be himself. This is natural. As a result, the political rookie took the lead on an issue important to voters: campus unrest.

Reagan repeatedly attacked student unrest at the University of California, Berkeley, the birthplace of the free speech movement. In an oral history interview with Reagan biographer Lou Cannon, Spencer recalled that he specifically "challenged the California hippies" during a speech in Fresno. “He really caught up with them.

"We went back to the (motel) room and I asked, 'Why are you talking about this? This is just a blip in the polls.' He looked me straight in the eye and said, 'It won't happen when I get over it.' "He's right."

Reagan noticed the question because the audience kept asking him it during the Q&A session.

He was elected in a landslide victory over Democratic Gov. Pat Brown.

Another guideline was that Spencer wanted the candidates — especially Reagan — to be covered by the news media.

"We were so scared that in the transition from actor to politician, he would be crucified as a guy who did everything from the script," Spencer told me. "We want people to realize that he has some brains, has some ideas."

Reagan held sit-down press conferences most afternoons during the 1966 campaign. As governor, he held regular weekly meetings. Unfortunately, he rarely served as president, thus reducing his exposure to the public.

Another signpost: When a campaign gets stuck, change the discussion. That's why Reagan chose Sandra Day O'Connor to be the first female Supreme Court justice.

Speechwriter Ken Khachigian said Reagan was "harassed" by feminist and environmental protesters during the 1980 campaign.

"Stu came to Reagan with this idea, promising to put a woman on the Supreme Court. People think that's normal now. But at the time it was a great idea. Stu's political instincts allowed you to change the entire conversation. Overnight "The demonstrations disappeared."

Reagan defeated Carter in a landslide in the electoral vote.

Spencer warned years ahead of other Republicans that the Republican Party would be more welcoming to Latinos. In 1997 he complained to me that the party was committing "political suicide". Three years ago, Wilson and the Republicans strongly supported Proposition 187, which denied public services to immigrants living here illegally. Voters overwhelmingly approved the measure, but a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional.

“We are losing market share dramatically among the fastest-growing groups of voters,” Spencer told me. “Our party has a tragic history of alienating immigrant groups and that’s politically self-defeating.”

But few listen. His prediction came true. It was only in the last few elections that Latinos began to return to the Republican Party.

Spencer never voted for Donald Trump.

"He said Trump was a pretty despicable person and a felon — 'I wouldn't vote for a felon,'" said his daughter Karen Spencer, a retired political consultant.

The lifelong Republican voted for Democrat Kamala Harris last year and for Joe Biden in 2020. In 2016, he did not vote for any of the major candidates.

"It sickened him to watch the party embrace Trump. It absolutely sickened him," said his widow, Barbara Spencer. "He would say, 'I don't know what's wrong with these people.' "

One answer: There are no more Reagans in the party. There are also very few, if any, Spencers.