“The doctors say I have a little time,” Ken Boehm told me over the phone on the afternoon of April 6, “So, yes, come by and see me if you can. But if you can’t, no problem. It was great catching up with you.”
Sadly, I never made it to see Boehm — crusading co-founder of the anti-corruption National Legal and Policy Center (NPLC) and a lifelong activist in the modern conservative movement. He died on April 13 at age 68, after an eight-year battle with cancer.
With tremendous energy, a passionate commitment to conservatism, and a solid sense of humor that never quit, Boehm’s life seemed the model for those young people whose views and ambitions were motivated by their hero Ronald Reagan.
A graduate of Penn State and Delaware Law School, the young Boehm was elected as a Reagan-for-President delegate from the Keystone State in 1976. Reagan was challenging incumbent President Gerald Ford for the nomination and pressure was strong from the White House for delegates to stick with the incumbent. Boehm stayed firm for Reagan, despite some personal lobbying by Ford himself.
Following a stint as Assistant District Attorney of Chester County (Penn.) and three years as host of a radio talk show, Boehm was clearly aiming at his life’s goal of a bid for Congress from Pennsylvania’s 8th District (Bucks County). But he finally backed out in 1980 to support GOP businessman Jim Coyne because, in his words, “Jim has more money and much better looks.” (Coyne went on to unseat Democratic Rep. Peter Kostmayer).
The year that Reagan was elected president, Boehm served as treasurer of the Fund for a Conservative Majority. In assisting conservative House and Senate hopefuls across the country, Boehm took a special interest in a 27-year-old sporting goods salesman named Chris Smith carrying the GOP banner against House Administration Committee Chairman Frank Thompson, D.-N.J.
With his national conservative contacts, Boehm raised money for Smith. Somehow, he made a connection with Jimmy Stewart and convinced the star of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” telling voters another Mr. Smith — Chris — should go to Washington.
It seemed a hopeless challenge until the ABCAM scandal unveiled films Thompson taking bribes from FBI agents disguised as Arab sheiks. Smith unseated Thompson with 57 percent of the vote. Boehm served as his chief of staff from 1981-84 and laid the groundwork for the Garden State congressman to turn a historically Democratic seat into one that is securely Republican.
Now 65, Smith is the fourth senior Republican in the House and one of two of the 55 “Reagan babies” remaining who came in the year Reagan was elected president in 1980.
Boehm went on to serve as head of Citizens for Reagan, a grass-roots lobbying group that backed the President’s agenda, and he was appointed counsel to the Legal Services Corporation.
But conservative activism was what motivated him the most and, in that department, Boehm was a genuine swashbuckler. Having co-founded the NLPC in 1991 and subsequently become its chairman, he began to work tirelessly on exposing fraud and waste in government. These included exposing a “sweetheart deal” in which U.S. Air Force official Darleen Druyun sold her home to a Boeing Aircraft lawyer with whom she was negotiating a contract and Druyun’s daughter was hired by Boeing as it was laying off employees.
With Boehm “connecting the dots” for reporters, the scandal became front-page news, Boeing’s CEO resigned, Druyon went to prison, and billions in tax dollars were saved.
In his twilight days, Boehm spoke proudly of his daughter Christine, Stanford graduate and former corporate attorney, and how different her life was from his.
“She did great as a corporate lawyer and now she’s home with her two children,” he told me, “And I’m so proud of her. My career after law school took some different turns. But I think I did a lot of cool stuff, too.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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