
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 5, 1995                   TAG: 9507050071
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

VA. GROUP RAISES MILLIONS

The letter to senior citizens sounded urgent: Congress was about to make ``BILLION-dollar cuts in Medicare funding,'' and donations were needed to pay for ``intensive work by our team of lobbyists and legislative specialists.''

With appeals like that one earlier this year, the United Seniors Association raises upwards of $5 million a year from its small headquarters in a modern office park in Virginia, an hour from the Capitol.

The association is one of three seniors groups that raise millions of dollars a year offering themselves as conservative lobbying alternatives to the gigantic American Association of Retired Persons. The other conservative groups are the Seniors Coalition and 60/Plus.

Many in Congress who control the issues important to older Americans say they have never heard of the alternative organizations, suggesting they are largely fund-raising machines that provide few services to donors.

But ``we've got a force of 14 people on the Hill, and all of them have contact with members or staff on a daily basis,'' Seniors Coalition lobbyist Jake Hansen said Tuesday. ``It's a pretty hollow argument that we're not doing much of anything besides fund raising.'' Congressional criticism, Hansen said, is ``politically motivated.''

Among two dozen members of the House and Senate from both parties, only one - retiring Democratic Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois - mentioned United Seniors as active on Medicare and other seniors issues.

And even Simon is wary.

``My impression is that some groups - ostensibly set up to help seniors - primarily raise money for the people who supposedly are their advocates,'' he said, declining to name specific groups.

United Seniors and 60/Plus have links to the fund-raising empire of Richard Viguerie, and the Seniors Coalition used to. Viguerie's direct-mail appeals for conservatives ranging from Jesse Helms to Oliver North have raised eyebrows as much for their lucrative results as for their content, which critics say preys on emotions and fears.

United Seniors reported spending nearly $2.2 million on fund raising and just $113,000 on lobbyists in 1993, and collectively the three conservative alternatives raise about $18 million a year. They mail millions of solicitations to senior citizens attacking AARP as liberal and out of touch with its members, and promise, in the words of one United Seniors fund-raising letter, ``to be the TRUE VOICE of senior citizens like you.''

With the switch to a Republican Congress, ``I think these groups are beginning to have influence,'' said David Keene, president of American Conservative Union and a strategy consultant for United Seniors. ``Under the Democrats, you couldn't shoot your way into'' congressional hearings. ``Now they have an opportunity, and this will be the test of their maturing.''

In April, House Speaker Newt Gingrich delivered a Medicare speech to a meeting of the Seniors Coalition, and Hansen says he's sometimes summoned for strategy meetings in Gingrich's office.

The Seniors Coalition has 1 million members and separated from Viguerie three years ago, Hansen said. The somewhat smaller United Seniors claims 400,000 members. AARP has 33 million members.

by CNB