ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 8, 1996 TAG: 9607080160
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE CHRISTIAN COALITION presents itself as a religious organization and thus is exempt from federal taxes. But how far is it willing to go to get its preferred political candidates elected?
The Christian Coalition avoids federal taxes by claiming it promotes religious issues and steers clear of politics. But when coalition Director Ralph Reed spoke privately to a meeting of lobbyists, he was every bit the political pro.
``In Virginia, there was a state senator we did not care for,'' Reed told the session at a Florida resort. ``He was positioning himself to run for attorney general. None of us could take a chance on him being elected.''
Reed then detailed how the coalition helped defeat Democratic state Sen. Moody Stallings in the early 1990s by mobilizing its phone banks and developing lists of conservative voters and the issues that most interested them.
The lists, he said, were sold to Republican challenger Ken Stolle to be used for a last-minute direct-mail appeal to voters. Stolle won in an upset, but Stolle's campaign report to the state shows no such payment.
The 1994 speech, a recording of which was obtained by The Associated Press, provides a rare detailed admission of just how far the coalition is willing to go to get Republican candidates elected.
Such activities leave critics and tax experts questioning whether the group, which says it has 1.7 million members, has crossed the line from tax-exempt education to political machine.
In nearly all cases, the group's blessing falls on conservative Republicans.
``It has seemed to us that from day one, their purpose has been to elect candidates they want to public office,'' said Joseph Conn, spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a watchdog group.
He accused the Christian Coalition of ``playing fast and loose with the tax rules all along.''
After the stunning Republican sweep of Congress in 1994, many view the Christian Coalition as the GOP answer to labor unions, which long have been a grass-roots political machine for the Democrats.
Just last month, the coalition's president, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, made a bold claim. ``The Christian Coalition: Without it, probably Bob Dole wouldn't be the nominee,'' he said.
On June 27, Reed and Robertson met again with Dole for 40 minutes in hopes of working out a compromise on the divisive abortion issue.
Reed insists his group is well within the law.
``The Christian Coalition is a grass-roots citizen organization that devotes the vast majority and bulk of its resources to influencing legislation,'' he said. ``We are absolutely and totally confident that we are in full compliance.''
Since it was formed in 1989, the Virginia-based organization has paid no federal taxes, claiming an exemption for groups that promote public welfare. Such groups can dabble in politics, but it cannot be their primary purpose.
After more than six years, the Internal Revenue Service still hasn't ruled on the claim, one of the longest delays ever for such an application.
If the IRS grants the application, the coalition will continue to pay no taxes. If the government rejects it, the group could be forced to pay millions in past and future taxes. It also could be forced to organize as a political committee and be required to disclose its donors.
Tax experts say one of the coalition's most potent weapons - the millions of voter guides it distributes to churches each election - may be an important gauge for the final ruling.
The coalition says the guides are not partisan, but rather a normal function of its public education effort. It plans to distribute 64 million this year.
But critics claim the group skews the guides by selecting questions that favor a particular candidate.
Last month, the coalition distributed a voter guide in an unsuccessful foray into the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Virginia.
On June 1, Reed flew into Roanoke with conservative Republican Oliver North for the state party convention, where North called on the party to replace incumbent Sen. John Warner with former Reagan administration budget director Jim Miller. Robertson also was there.
Reed called the primary ``a test of the ideological direction of the party,'' and the coalition issued a voter guide favoring Miller. Warner went from a 100 percent approval rating in the coalition's most recent congressional scorecard to 20 percent in the new guide. He won anyway.
``A showing of selectivity in a voter guide ... weighs toward it being political as opposed to just educational,'' said Frances Hill, a University of Miami professor who specializes in tax-exempt groups.
A new analysis of the 1994 elections by reporter Glenn Simpson and University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato concluded that the coalition's voter guides were ``systematically rigged'' to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of free advertising for GOP candidates for Congress.
Reed defends the guides. ``We select issues that show a distinction between the candidates as much as possible,'' he said.
While the coalition insists publicly that its purpose is issue advocacy and not politics, its top officials make no bones in private about their political involvement - and impact.
At a 1993 conference, coalition official Max Karrer recounted how the group helped a Republican win a Florida state legislative seat by selling him a ``Christian voter database.''
``We were not allowed to give them away, so we charged him five dollars,'' Karrer explained, boasting, ``Every candidate we got behind won.''
His speech was taped by a critic.
Critics call the coalition an adjunct to the Republican Party that ought to pay taxes on proceeds it funnels into such political activities.
The Democratic Party, in a complaint under investigation by the Federal Election Commission, claims the coalition should register as a political action committee and disclose its money sources and aid to candidates.
For now, the coalition continues to send out letters to supporters such as one from Robertson earlier this year, asking for help in raising $2.5 million for get-out-the-vote activities. The letter attacked President Clinton for ``bigger government, higher taxes, more anti-family legislation.''
``The moment we've been building for is here,'' Robertson wrote. ``The 1996 Election Year is upon us.''
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICSby CNB