Orange's Local President

Orange's Local President If an essentially rootless man like Richard Nixon can be said to have a home at all, it is Orange County, Calif. There he was born. Nearby he was educated through college and elected to Congress. In Orange, he bought the residence he retreats to now. He is out to prove that you can go home again. Last week, on the day before his 57th birthday, the President, Pat and Tricia registered as California voters in the Orange County courthouse. One young well-wisher carried a sign saying SUPPORT OUR LOCAL PRESIDENT.

The area is now Nixon's by more than birthright. Orange today is affluent, expanding rapidly, suburban in appearance and conservative in politics. It is, in short, a microcosm of the America that may one day yield a national Republican majority. If there were sentimental reasons for re-establishing a Southern California homestead, there were practical ones as well. The West is growing faster than the East. California in 1972 will have the highest electoral vote of any state (it already has the largest population). In terms of both ideology and numbers, the G.O.P. counts California as the Western pillar of its future. Call the presidential offices at San Clemente, and the operator responds by saying not "vacation White House," but "Western White House." It is no coincidence. Nixon wants it that way.

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