ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
note: above
The federal government on Tuesday sued the Christian Coalition, charging that the religious organization founded by M.G. "Pat" Robertson has illegally promoted Republican candidates for president and Congress.
The suit, if successful, would impose federal regulations that could hamper the Chesapeake-based group's $21 million-a-year fund-raising program and force the coalition to disclose how it raises and spends its money.
The suit, filed by the Federal Election Commission in U.S. District Court in Washington, also seeks fines that could run in the millions and to bar the coalition from distributing its controversial voter guides around the country in this fall's presidential and congressional elections.
The coalition vows to fight the suit, dismissing it as baseless and saying it is the latest in a number of actions by the FEC aimed at harassing conservative and evangelical public interest groups.
"The Christian Coalition has abided by both the letter and the spirit of the law," said Ralph Reed, the group's executive director. "We are absolutely and totally confident that we will be fully vindicated and the courts will affirm that people of faith have every right to be involved as citizens and voters."
The FEC charged that the nonprofit coalition distributed millions of voter guides, held conferences and used direct mail and telemarketing to encourage conservative voters to cast ballots for Republicans during the 1990, 1992 and 1994 elections.
Among the candidates the FEC alleged got illegal coalition help were former President George Bush, former U.S. Senate candidate Oliver North of Virginia, U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina and House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia.
The FEC said the coalition coordinated many of its activities with the campaigns it sought to help. As a result, the suit said, its deeds should be considered "in-kind" political contributions that should be subject to federal disclosure and campaign finance laws.
The coalition, which bills itself as a nonpartisan voter-education group, has insisted since its 1989 inception that it is not subject to campaign finance laws and its donations and expenditures on political causes are not subject to limits or disclosure.
Several election-law experts said that if courts find the coalition's activities do constitute partisan political activity, the group may have little choice but to reconstitute itself as a political action committee. Under federal law, PACs may not accept corporate donations and are limited to accepting a maximum of $5,000 a year from individuals and making a maximum of $5,000 in gifts per candidate per election.
The suit is the latest in a list of legal woes facing the coalition. The group has been under a lengthy review by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS has delayed a final ruling whether the coalition can legitimately claim its tax-exempt status. One issue in the deliberations is whether the organization spends a majority of its funds on partisan activities.
Federal investigators also have been looking into charges of financial impropriety by a private firm running the coalition's direct mail enterprises. The firm has denied any wrongdoing.
"The coalition will go out of business if it loses the FEC suit," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "The Christian Coalition is dependent on hiding its business. A lot of people don't like to be publicly associated with Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed."
Any action on the lawsuit likely will come too late to directly affect this year's elections. But Lynn and other coalition critics said the government's action could discourage churches from distributing the group's voter guides in November. Churches can lose their tax exemption if they engage in partisan activity.
The FEC began looking into the coalition's activities in 1992, following a complaint by the Democratic National Committee. A majority of the six-member commission - composed of three Democratic and three Republican members - voted to file the suit May 7 after failing to reach an "acceptable conciliation agreement" with the coalition.
Jim Bopp, a Terre Haute, Ind., lawyer representing the coalition, predicted the suit would drag out well past this fall's election and his client eventually would prevail.
The FEC has failed to win a number of suits it has filed in recent years questioning the unreported political activities of conservative public interest groups such as GOPAC, the Christian Action Network, the Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee and the Massachusetts Citizens for Life.
"You have to wonder why the FEC is filing such a disproportionate amount of suits against right-wing groups," he said.
Bopp said the coalition's activities are legal because they are not aimed at supporting individual candidates, but rather at promoting issues important to Christian conservatives.
Democrats have long claimed that the millions of voter guides distributed by the coalition each year constitute endorsements of Republican candidates and are unfairly slanted. The ballots, distributed at churches just prior to elections, lists issues and candidates' positions on them.
While it's easy to tally which candidate has the most checks, Bopp said, the guides are legally a nonpartisan activity because they never specifically urge voters to support or oppose a candidate. The same precautions of not endorsing are followed in the coalition's phone banking and direct mail. "We practice issue advocacy, not candidate advocacy," he said.
Bopp said the suit could have a chilling effect on public debate. "How can citizens participate in democracy and discuss issues if they're concerned that the federal government will fine them for discussing issues?" he said.
The suit says the coalition spent money to help the 1992 Bush re-election committee identify friendly voters and get them to the polls. It also published 28 million voter guides that showed Bush in a favorable light compared to Bill Clinton.
The FEC says the coalition coordinated get-out-the-vote efforts in 1994 with Oliver North's unsuccessful Virginia campaign for the senate and distributed 1.75 million voter guides favoring the Republican.
Similar coordinated efforts were made on behalf of Helms in 1990 and Gingrich in 1994, the FEC alleges.
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESS POLITICS PRESIDENTby CNB