contact with Governor Ronald Reagan, who chaired Nixon's California campaign, and Lyn Nofziger, who ran the West Coast Nixon political operation. Rollins moved to Washington in 1973, to serve as principal assistant to Monagan overseeing congressional relations at the U.S. Department of Transportation. He continued as deputy assistant secretary for congressional affairs through the end of the Ford administration. From 1977 to 1979, he served as dean of the faculty and deputy superintendent at the National Fire Academy in Washington. During that time, he met and married Kitty Nellor Burnes. In early 1979, Rollins returned to Sacramento with his wife Kitty Nellor and became chief of staff for the Assembly Republican Caucus. During this period, he was offered but ultimately declined the position of chief of staff to former President Nixon. Reagan administration, 1981-1983 After the landslide GOP victory in November 1980, Rollins was hired to serve as deputy assistant to the president for political affairs under Nofziger. When Nofziger resigned in November 1981, Rollins was appointed as assistant to the president for political affairs and director of the Office of Political Affairs. A week before the 1982 election, on October 25, Rollins suffered two strokes, the result of a deteriorating neck artery that had been injured during his final boxing match in 1967. He recovered and returned to his White House job in December 1982, holding the position until resigning in October 1983 to lead Reagan's re-election campaign. In the second term, he rejoined the Reagan Administration for several months in 1985 as Assistant to the President for Political and Governmental Affairs. Political campaigns Rollins worked as national campaign director to Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. Rollins was personally selected for the job by White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, who had served as Gerald Ford's manager in 1976. Rollins's deputy and political director was Lee Atwater. The Reagan-Bush ticket ultimately won 49 of the 50 states. After the election, Rollins agreed in January 1985 to return to the White House Office of Political Affairs, under new Chief of Staff Donald Regan. However, Rollins grew disenchanted after Regan passed him over for the post of Secretary of Labor following the resignation of Raymond Donovan, and with the abrasive chief's staff and style. On October 1, 1985, Rollins joined the Sacramento-based political consulting firm of Russo & Watts. In the 1988 Republican presidential primaries, Rollins