Christian Coalition Woes Widen With Lawsuit Over Past-Due Bills.

The Christian Coalition's financial and organizational troubles are continuing to widen.

In the most recent developments, the group is being sued for nearly $400,000 by a direct-mail marketing firm that says it hasn't been paid since last spring, and Randy Tate, formerly the group's executive director, has resigned.

Coalition leaders acknowledged in December that the group's debt is now near $2 million. At the same time, a fund-raising firm called Stephen Winchell and Associates filed a lawsuit against the group in Arlington County, Va., claiming it is owed $386,000. "It's shocking," Winchell told the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. "We've been legitimately wronged here."

Winchell, whose firm has helped the Coalition raise a total of $7 million, told the newspaper that the Coalition owes money to lots of other organizations, such as printers and companies that provide office supplies. He said the total owed by the Coalition to vendors may be as much as $2 million.

But Roberta Combs, a former South Carolina Coalition activist that Coalition President Pat Robertson hired to turn the organization around, insisted the debt is not a serious problem. "Any time you owe someone money it's certainly a source of concern," she said. "We're in the process of working that out and paying it off."

Robertson himself conceded that the Coalition's finances are in disarray. He said Combs had inherited the problems, telling the newspaper, "Her predecessors left her quite a mess and she's been trying ... to clean it up."

Nevertheless, Robertson believes the debt is "manageable," said Chris Freund, a Coalition spokesman. "It's not something that is keeping him up at night. He doesn't feel the debt is anything that will keep us from doing what we need to do."

Along with the financial crisis, Robertson's Coalition has also been plagued with an exodus of leadership. Tate, who was hired to replace Ralph Reed in 1997 but later demoted to head of the Coalition's Washington lobbying office, resigned in late November. His departure leaves the organization with no experienced leaders.

"There's basically no one left," one source close to the group told the Virginian-Pilot. "If you looked at the organizational chart in February and looked at it today, you wouldn't recognize it."

The Coalition has announced plans to shut down its national office in Chesapeake, Va., and relocate to the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. More down-sizing is expected when the group makes the move.

The problems have forced Robertson to become increasingly shrill in his fund-raising letters. His Nov. 5 appeal advised Coalition members that "we're at war with the forces of darkness" and warned that "political leaders in both major parties are doing everything in their power to silence the voice of Christians in the 2000 elections."

"Our enemies don't like our agenda," Robertson said. "They don't want us to bring our Lord Jesus Christ and His priorities back to America.... I must tell you that now is the time YOU can make a difference for Christ as never before."

In other news about the Coalition:

* A federal judge in Alabama has rejected the Christian Coalition's attempt to do an end-run around campaign finance disclosure laws in the state, ruling that the group must disclose the names of donors who contributed more than $100 to its recent anti-lottery effort.

The Coalition claimed it should be exempt from a state law that requires any group that spends at least $1,000 on an election or ballot measure to register as a political action committee and report contributors who give more than $100. The Coalition had announced it would spend $20,000 on a drive to keep a state-sponsored lottery out of Alabama.

Coalition attorney James Bopp argued in court that the law infringed on the group's free speech rights and called it "a profound burden." He said the disclosure law would "discourage some donors and subject some to harassment."

But U.S. District Judge Richard Vollmer was not swayed. Ruling from the bench Sept. 16, Vollmer said the Alabama law does not infringe on free speech.

Despite the close ties between the Coalition and Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor (R), the state's top legal officials argued against the group in court. "This suit threatened to create a loophole that would allow proponents and opponents of any ballot issue to funnel huge sums of money into their campaigns without voters ever knowing the source of that funding," Secretary of State Jim Bennett told the Associated Press. "This ruling upholds the voters' right to know."

Although it lost in court, the Coalition was able to claim a victory on the lottery question on Oct. 2 when Alabamans voted on the referendum. Despite a strong push from Gov. Don Siegelman (D), the lottery proposal was rejected 54 percent to 46 percent, thanks largely to church-based opposition.

* The Christian Coalition has filed suit against a similar campaign finance disclosure law in Maine. State law there, like Alabama, requires groups taking sides on ballot referenda to register as political action committees and disclose donors. Paul Volle, Christian Coalition of Maine's executive director, filed suit against the regulations in federal court in September.

Volle and the Christian Coalition helped defeat a Maine gay-rights referendum in 1998. Volle was subsequently fined $250 by the state Ethics Commission for not registering his front group, Management Research Development Associates, as a political action committee.

* The Alaska Public Offices Commission has fined the state Christian Coalition $1,850, charging that the group campaigned against a medical marijuana ballot initiative last year without complying with campaign disclosure laws. The Coalition added statements to a voter guide urging Alaskans to "Vote NO on Measure 8. (Legalizes Drug Use.")

The Commission is a bipartisan panel composed of five citizens. One member told the Anchorage Daily News that the commission believed the Coalition should have realized its activities violated state law. "There seemed to be a consensus that this was an experienced political group that should have known that adopting a position opposed to a ballot measure was an undertaking that would trigger reporting requirements under the law," said Commissioner Phil Volland.

Deborah Luper, the former director of the Alaska Christian Coalition, said the group has now become inactive.

* The Coalition's troubles have affected its influence in Washington. Fortune magazine last month ranked the 114 most powerful lobbying groups in the nation's capital. The Coalition was 35, down from number 7 in 1998. The magazine called that "the biggest fall from grace" in 1999. The rankings were determined by surveying every member of Congress, Capitol Hill aides, White House staffers, lobbyists and top-ranking officials of lobbying firms.