California schemin.' (religious right in California)

West Coast Republicans Anoint Christian Coalition 'Missionaries' To Convert Voters To The GOP In '98, As Pat Robertson Group Shifts Emphasis To Church-based Politicking

Republican Assemblyman John Leonard says the Christian Coalition's corps of activists needs to get ready for the 1998 elections in California.

"I have great hope for the 'road to victory' in California in 1998," the Assembly's GOP minority leader told a recent gathering of the group. "It's based on the efforts of the people in this room, the people who will be here this weekend that will be learning and listening and praying and understanding the issues and then going out - you're my missionaries - to your neighbors, the people you work with and explaining to them the real choices they have in the 1998 elections."

Insisting that he wants a Christian Coalition voter's guide "delivered to every voter in California," Leonard observed, "We're 51 weeks and counting to a critically important election that will set the stage for California's future in its government. I need your help in making that happen. I need - I want - to serve with a pro-family majority [in the Assembly], and it's only with your help and your hard work that that's going to happen."

Leonard's speech was typical of the partisan preaching and pious politicking at the first "Road to Victory" Conference sponsored by the California affiliate of the Christian Coalition Nov. 7-8 in Long Beach, Calif. Although originally billed as a "national" event, the meeting was geared down to a state function. The 300 or so attendees came mostly from California, with a sprinkling from nearby states.

The speakers came mostly from California, too. A cavalcade of Republican members of Congress was scheduled to speak, but a rare weekend congressional session kept them in Washington. However, a who's who of top California Republican office holders and office seekers trooped in to commend TV preacher Pat Robertson's religio-political legions and seek their aid in upcoming elections. Coalition activists were enthusiastically receptive to the partisan appeals, and CC leaders unveiled new church-based political tactics to increase their electoral clout.

Although speaker after speaker touted Republican Party politics, Assemblyman Leonard joked about the Christian Coalition's supposedly "nonpartisan" character. Calling for a return to "republican" values, he quipped, "[That's] republican, small 'r.' This is a nonpartisan group; don't want to jeopardize your tax-exempt status."

He then urged the group to apply a "pro-family" litmus test to candidates for even the lowest level offices in the state, such as mosquito boards. Those offices, he said, are important as training grounds. "I don't care if it's the water board," he said. "That's where we raise up public officials. That's where the presidents, the governors and the legislators come from."

Other speakers took up similar themes. Sen. Rob Hurtt, a wealthy Garden Grove manufacturer who has personally financed and coordinated a right-wing Republican onslaught in California, commended the Coalition for its work. Especially in low interest elections, said Hunt, the Coalition helps turn out 5 to 10 percent of the indifferent Republican voters who might otherwise stay home.

Tracing the ups and downs of Republican fortunes in the legislature in the' 90s, Hurtt lamented the fact that spending huge sums of money doesn't always result in victories. He said he helped raise and spend some $6 million - what he admitted was an "obscene amount of money" - in five state senate races in 1996 and yet the Democrat-Republican ratio didn't change.

Hurtt, however, was optimistic about the next round of elections. "In 1998," he said, "there is a real possibility we can get the [Republican] majority back in the Assembly, and we need to move ahead in the Senate by two or three seats." Hurtt, who first became interested in politics through his parents' support for Robertson's 1988 presidential bid, said he is targeting five or six legislative swing districts and recruiting candidates "who hold the values you do."

"A tremendous amount of things are going on right this minute as we try to get ready for the 1998 elections, and we look forward to all the help that you'll be able to give us," he concluded.

Two Republicans seeking to replace Democrat Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate appeared before the crowd to seek its favor. California State Treasurer Matt Fong touted his support for school vouchers, phonics and the English language, his service in the Air Force, and his opposition to "partial birth" abortion and U.S. military missions under United Nations aegis. But the CC activists' beans were clearly with Darrell Issa, a wealthy businessman who has made "moral certainty" and opposition to abortion central themes of his campaign.

The crowd cheered wildly when Issa proclaimed, "I'm going to send Barbara Boxer back to San Francisco where she belongs." He said Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, was wrong, and he opposed what he called the "one world order."

The CC throng seemed to hate Boxer - Issa said "she whines" to chuckles from attendees - almost as much as President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. California Christian Coalition State Chairman Sarah DiVito Hardman announced that she had invited Boxer to address the gathering, and many members of the audience literally gasped and moaned at the thought.

The invitation, which Boxer declined, was apparently a perfunctory nod toward nonpartisanship. In fact, no Democrats appeared on the convention stage.

Perhaps the most popular politician to speak to the Coalition congregation was State Attorney General Dan Lungren, the likely Republican nominee for governor in 1998. A long-time ally of the Religious Right, Lungren bitterly attacked Clinton for failing to address the "moral erosion and the neglect of values that are the root cause of our problems" in America.

He even took a swipe at 1996 Republican presidential candidate Robert Dole for failing to emphasize family values and morals early enough in the 1996 election. When Dole finally did so, argued Lungren, "It came too little, too late."

Lungren spent most of his time at the podium taking potshots at the separation of church and state and arguing that America was built on a "Judeo-Christian heritage." "The notion that because we have something known as separation of church and state, we therefore cannot bring our religious and spiritual values into the public arena," said Lungren, "this idea is absolutely, positively false, and it's dangerous....Separation of church and state does not mean separation of God and state."

Calling for a government based "our Judeo-Christian tradition," Lungren charged, "To say that separation of church and state takes us so far that we can't even consider God means that we don't understand our Constitution."

Lungren, a Roman Catholic, bitterly attacked the Supreme Court's Planned Parenthood v. Casey abortion rights decision, especially its language guaranteeing the right of each individual to define "one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe and the mystery of life."

"What nonsense!" thundered Lungren. "What rubbish!" (Ironically, the three authors of that language - Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy and David Souter - were appointed to the high court by Republican Presidents George Bush and Ronald Reagan. In other contexts, Reagan's name was chanted reverentially by many speakers at the Coalition event.)

The future of America and California, Lungren insisted, lies "in a conversion of the hearts and souls of its people."

In addition to its ideological soulmates, the Coalition also heard from California's Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, an abortion rights advocate who has often tangled with the Religious Right. He came to the convention to plead for a truce. Republican in-fighting on the issue, he said, only makes the liberals happy.

Wilson found plenty of common ground with the Coalition. He touted phonics and school vouchers and raged against Clinton, the National Education Association and "union bosses." He played up his opposition to illegal immigration and affirmative action, even finding a theological reason for his stance.

"We are all God's children," he said, "all of us equal in His sight....How then can a government impose inequality of opportunity, giving preference to a gender, an ethnic group or a religion at the expense of all others?"

Wilson drew his strongest rounds of applause for his stance against gay rights measures. Mentions of his veto of a bill that would have banned employment discrimination against homosexuals and his opposition to benefits for domestic partners won huge rounds of applause, whistles and cheers.

The governor also touted a closer relationship between government and religion, commending the use of churches in welfare programs and his recruitment of clergy to serve as mentors for juveniles. He praised "old-fashioned family values" and celebrated parents who "by precept and example instill in their children a belief in the Lord and a belief in prayer."

Wilson defended the Coalition's involvement in politics. "While the First Amendment forbids the state from establishing a religion," he said, "at the same time it guarantees to every individual or group the right to assert their values - be they Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or other - and to promote them by political, social or cultural activity."

Observers believe Wilson's appearance strongly suggests he's preparing for a run for the White House in the year 2000. While he is unlikely to win Coalition support due to his abortion rights position, he hopes to at least mollify Coalition activists who could veto his presidential chances.

Although Coalition activists cheered Wilson's stand against affirmative action, they engaged in a little bit of it themselves. Recognizing the rapidly increasing Latino portion of the state's population, the group arranged a panel on "The Growing Hispanic Community: Promises and Pitfalls for the Christian Conservative Movement."

The session was chaired by Mike Madrid, deputy political director of the California Republican Party, who said religiously conservative Latinos should be a natural constituency for the GOP. Most Latinos - an estimated 70 percent - are Roman Catholic, he noted, and many of the rest are evangelical Protestants. Panelists Ed Perez, a Republican candidate in the 34th Congressional District, and Roberto Galvan, a GOP standard bearer in the 46th Assembly district, agreed and appealed to the Coalition for support.

In a separate convention session, Catholic Alliance President Keith Fournier promoted similar views, telling of his efforts to forge American Catholics into a voting bloc that puts their religious faith first when they go into the polling place. The Alliance, a spin-off from the Christian Coalition, claims 40 affiliates around the country.

Fournier blasted the late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan and other public officials who support abortion rights despite their Catholic faith. They should, he insisted, "be Converted or replaced."

Fournier said the Alliance is trying to use different language from the Coalition to appeal to Catholics, many of whom are registered Democrats. Instead of emphasizing a liberal-conservative split, he is characterizing his platform - which is virtually identical to the Coalition's - as pro-life, pro-family, pro-freedom and in solidarity with the poor.

Fournier's reliance on careful language was a recurring theme at the Coalition event. Speaker after speaker emphasized that Coalition activists and other conservatives must carefully package their issues.

Observed conservative activist Patrick J. Rooney, "We need to put on a compassionate face when we are trying to sell values to the public." Rooney, best known for this private school advocacy, said the Republican Party really should be known as the "caring" party. "If you descended on America from Mars and you did not understand the language and you were looking for the compassionate political party, you would have to choose the Republicans," he said.

Rooney told the crowd that "home schooling is the way to go if you can do it." Since many single parents cannot, however, he said he has joined the Friedman Foundation in pushing a new movement that encourages inner-city churches to run dawn to dusk schools. Rooney also touted medical savings accounts and backed an anti-union initiative headed for the ballot next year in California.

Conservative pollster Kelly Ann Fitzpatrick took a similar tack. She told the crowd that Americans, especially young people of the "Gen X" generation, now regard "fairness" as more important than "equality." That terminology is good for conservatives, she said, in working against affirmative action and the use of union dues for political purposes. It will also help in fighting for school vouchers and parental rights, an issue she expects to take off in the near future.

But Christian Coalition activists are depending on more than language in their electioneering. At the Long Beach gathering, the group's leaders outlined a tactical shift that dramatically changes its approach to politicking.

Chuck Cunningham, CC national operations director, told the conferees that the Coalition's efforts to identify sympathetic voters through neighborhood outreach have not been successful. The group plans to shift to a largely church-based electoral strategy.

"We' re going to return to the strength of our organization and our philosophy and our faith and go back to the churches," said Cunningham. "If religious conservatives of all denominations get registered, get educated about candidates and turn out, in most cases, the conservative pro-life candidate will win and that will affect public policy."

Cunningham said the Coalition activists have often simply dropped off voter guides anonymously at churches every two years. Now they plan to focus on naming permanent "church liaisons" in 125,000 congregations around the country. The liaisons will try to build a strong relationship with pastors and, where possible, develop a "citizenship ministry" - a politically oriented committee - in each church to implement CC directives throughout the year.

Trust between the CC liaison and the pastor, he said, will sustain the Coalition when it suffers attacks from government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission and "liberal" groups such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Interfaith Alliance and People for the American Way.

Cunningham also made it abundantly clear that the Christian Coalition's mission is primarily political. "To control the policy debate," he told the CC activists, "you need to control the grassroots and then you affect the politics that then affects the policy.

"Too many organizations in my view spend a lot of time on the policy end - writing good bills and giving great testimony and writing fantastic briefing papers," continued Cunningham, a former political operative for the National Rifle Association. "But if you don't have the votes, you don't pass most of the bills that we're interested in. If you don't have the right people elected you won't have the votes. The way to get the votes is to be involved in the political process at the grassroots level."

Dave Welch, the CC's Western Regional Coordinator, said the Coalition will concentrate on overcoming resistance from pastors. Many clergy, he said, get negative reports from the media and activist groups about church politicking.

"They're constantly bombarded with things like, 'you don't want to jeopardize your 501(c)(3) tax status. You don't want to offend people in your church. You know we have separation of church and state.'" said Welch. "How do we combat that?"

Welch said the solution is Coalition-sponsored community breakfasts and luncheons where pastors will be shown David Barton's film, Foundations of American Government, as well as CC videos. They will also be lectured on the CC spin on IRS law.

Coalition leaders clearly see a need to take action to increase the group's electoral presence. While the Coalition still exercises considerable clout in low-turnout races or extremely close contests, its power gets diluted in other races, especially in states where evangelical and fundamentalist churches are few.

In the November elections, for example, Christie Todd Whitman, a Republican, was reelected governor of New Jersey, despite a determined effort by the Christian Coalition to defeat her. The CC guides, usually heavily stacked toward the GOP candidate, were used against Whitman because of her strong support for abortion rights and gay rights. Democratic nominee Jim McGreevey held similar views, so the CC tilted its one million fliers in favor of third party Conservative Richard Pezzullo. (Libertarian candidate Murray Sabrin was snubbed entirely.)

According to Human Events, Republican National Chairman Jim Nicholson twice pleaded with Christian Coalition President Don Hodel to stop the voter guide distribution or at least to limit its information to the two major party candidates.

The conservative newspaper said Hodel refused. "As I told Jim, we are not in the business of electing or defeating candidates - just providing information," Hodel told the weekly. "And for us not to put out a voter guide in New Jersey would not be keeping faith with our membership."

The comment must have been galling to Nicholson. All political observers know the CC guides are carefully crafted, sometimes with overtly false information, to steer conservative Christians toward the group's preferred candidates, almost always Republicans.

Nicholson needn't have worried. Despite the Coalition's best efforts, and a wave of public sentiment against Whitman, the incumbent was narrowly reelected. CC favorite Pezzullo drew only one percent of the vote, and exit polls showed that only 3 percent of voters considered abortion to be their top concern.

In Virginia, GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Gilmore won an easy victory over Democrat Don Beyer. Although Gilmore had strong Christian Coalition backing - Pat Robertson gave him $100,000 in personal campaign donations - exit polls have shown that the Republican won on the basis of support for repeal of an unpopular automobile tax, not social or moral issues. (Gilmore publicly stated that he thought women should have a completely unrestricted right to an abortion through the eighth to twelfth week of pregnancy, but the CC backed him anyway.)

Christian Coalition leaders boasted that Gilmore had won, despite Democratic efforts to tie the Robertson albatross around the Republican's neck. In fact, exit polls showed that voters supported Gilmore in spite of his Religious Right connections, not because of them. According to The Washington Post, only 11 percent of Virginia voters said they considered themselves part of the Religious Right. (Eighty-two percent of Gilmore voters said they were not.) Even worse for the Coalition, only 32 percent of all voters in Robertson's home state had a favorable opinion of him.

The Coalition's new emphasis on churches appears to be a desperate attempt to regain some political momentum, but it also has major potential flaws. Churches are tax-exempt charities, forbidden by federal tax law to intervene in partisan politics. The Coalition, in contrast, has a provisional 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status. It pays no taxes, but donations to it are not deductible. (C)4 groups are allowed to intervene in campaigns as long as that is not their primary activity.

Thus, churches cooperating with the Coalition are placing their own much stricter exemption at risk. In the New Jersey gubernatorial contest, the New Jersey Catholic Conference - the public policy arm of the state's bishops - warned pastors not to distribute any campaign materials not approved by the conference. The announcement was aimed at the Christian Coalition, whose state director had falsely told the news media that he had the bishops' support.

Catholic Conference Executive Director William F. Bolan said the Coalition decides what issue positions to attribute to candidates if the candidates refuse to fill out the CC questionnaire. That leaves room for bias and opens the door to Internal Revenue Service scrutiny.

"If a challenger decides not to answer the [CC] questions," Bolan told the Newark Star-Ledger, "the position is gleaned from speeches and campaign literature. Our legal advisers feel this is way too subjective. We specifically don't approve the distribution of anyone else's literature but our own."

If evangelical and fundamentalist Protestant churches come to the same conclusion, the Christian Coalition's new tactic may be in a world of trouble.