Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 15, 1993 TAG: 9308150109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Larry Sabato, a political analyst and UVa government professor, chuckles when he talks about how a man running for the Connecticut legislature once earned the support of both anti-abortion and abortion-rights groups.
"He told them both what they wanted to hear," Sabato said.
That's no laughing matter to Rob Jones, president of the Virginia Education Association. It's his worst nightmare.
Jones worries about the confidentiality candidates demand when filling out political action committee questionnaires. Special-interest groups use the questionnaires to force candidates to state their positions on often-tough issues of concern to their members. Based on their answers, the PACs choose whom to endorse and typically back their endorsements with money.
An education association carries much weight in securing the Democratic nomination and can also mean several hundred campaign volunteers during an election.
But often, candidates won't fill out the questionnaires unless the To avoid alienating candidates - one of whom will surely win - the PACs honor their requests for secrecy. PACs promise to keep their answers secret, Jones said.
"The inherent worry," Jones said, is whether they are "telling one group one thing and another group another thing."
They don't tell any of it to the public. To avoid alienating candidates - one of whom will surely win - the PACs honor their requests for secrecy. And while the PACs sometimes encourage candidates to make their answers public, few candidates do so.
Why not?
"It's a policy," said Irene Thomaidis, press secretary for Democratic attorney general candidate Bill Dolan. "It's historically been our policy not to release the questionnaires."
Why?
"It's a strategic decision on the part of the campaign," she said.
When pressed to clarify, Thomaidis said, "It's just an administrative matter. We typically do not release correspondence."
Republican gubernatorial candidate George Allen does, sort of. Press secretary Ken Stroupe released a copy of Allen's AFL-CIO questionnaire, then refused to make public any others unless Democratic opponent Mary Sue Terry would do so.
"If they're not going to cooperate," he asked, "why should we?"
"We're not going to be able to help you out," said Jay Marlin, Terry's press secretary.
Marlin said Terry would make no questionnaires available but would not object if the PACs released them.
That was also the policy stated by Gail Nardi, press secretary to Lt. Gov. Don Beyer.
The PACs, however, won't give them out. The AFL-CIO referred all requests to the candidates. The education association said it would release them only with written authorization from a candidate but preferred the candidates be the ones to release them.
Meanwhile, Beyer's opponent, Republican Mike Farris, is still working on a policy.
His office would not release any completed questionnaires Thursday "because we can't make a decision on it today and we don't have the time," said Christy Farris, the candidate's daughter and also his deputy press secretary. Farris will come up with a policy next week, she added.
Republican Jim Gilmore, running for attorney general, first agreed to release all of his questionnaires, then changed his mind when he learned Dolan wasn't giving any out.
"We've talked it over here," he said. "We will when he does. I urge him to make his public now."
At the local level, candidates took a different stand.
Both Howard Packett and Morgan Griffith, vying for retiring Del. Steven Agee's 8th District House seat, agreed to release all of their questionnaires.
Why should any of the candidates make their answers public?
Nobody has ever lost an election for refusing to do so, said Sabato, who has written a book on PACs.
The questionnaires usually enter the political battlefield after one campaign gets hold of an opponent's answers and leaks them to the media, Sabato said.
That's what the AFL-CIO seeks to avoid by keeping its questionnaires to itself, spokesman Scott Reynolds said.
"We don't want our questionnaire to be used as a political football in a campaign," he said, adding that the logistics of distributing more than 70 forms to the media would also be overwhelming.
But while the labor organization won't be responsible for releasing the forms, it does encourage candidates to make their answers public, he said.
"We would also advise them politically to do so," Reynolds said. "We don't want their answers between us and them. We want them in the public debate. We want people talking about workplace issues."
Special-interest groups have good reason to distrust candidates who won't make their stands public, Sabato said.
"The old saying goes, `Say one thing in the north and another thing in the south.' "
Besides the questionnaire, said Sabato, "their only other guarantee is the candidate's word."
The public, likewise, should distrust this process, he said.
Sabato said candidates guard their questionnaires so that they can "give answers to special-interest groups that the general public might not approve of. It serves both the interest group and the candidate to keep the answers private."
Thomaidis bristles at the suggestion Dolan would hide his positions from the public. Ask about a specific issue, she said, and he'll answer. But he won't release his forms.
PACs, she said, will just have to trust the candidates - "evaluate them on whether they appear sincere."
If PACs sometimes become frustrated with the process, so do the candidates.
The benefits of filling out questionnaires, said a Gilmore spokesman, can be "questionable, to be quite candid about it."
The spokesman, who spoke on condition his name not be used, said Gilmore's office received 40 to 50 questionnaires and was considering hiring someone to fill them out. Researching issues - particularly items not germane to the campaign - can be time-consuming.
"I think it would be great to say, `We don't fill out questionnaires.' But you can't do that," the spokesman said.
Gilmore's office doesn't fill out every questionnaire it receives, however. It skipped the Virginia Education Association form on the assumption that group would endorse a Democrat. And it left blank several questions asked by the AFL-CIO.
"We try to fish where the fish are biting," the spokesman said.
Fishing in PAC waters can be a lucrative business.
The education association's statewide PAC gave $40,000 to winning gubernatorial candidate Douglas Wilder in 1989 and carries a $71,000 budget this year, Jones said.
The AFL-CIO typically hands out $30,000 to $50,000 in political donations, said Reynolds. Both groups said PACs at their local chapters also contribute to campaigns.
But endorsements bring more than money, Reynolds said. His group has 200,000 members in Virginia, all of whom may be lobbied to support a candidate.
An endorsement means volunteers, mail services, phone banks - and votes, he said.
"We do extensive voter contact."
How do you spell no?\ Statewide candidates' stands on releasing their completed questionnaires submitted by political action committee\ \ Mary Sue Terry: Won't release, but won't object if PAC releases.\ \ George Allen: Will release questionnaires that Terry releases.\ \ Don Beyer" Won't release, nbnut won't object if PAC releases.\ \ Mike Farris: No policy yet; won't release in the meantime.\ \ Bill Dolan: Won't release.\ \ Jim Gilmore: Initially agreed to release, changed policy upon learning Dolan would not release. Will make them public when Dolan does.
Keywords:
POLITICS
Memo: ***CORRECTION***