THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9605310632
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 153 lines
The attacks have begun.
Last weekend, the presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole fired their opening salvos, marking the earliest release of attack ads by major-party candidates.
Republicans accused Clinton of hiding behind his titular position as ``commander in chief'' of the military to protect himself from a sexual harassment lawsuit from Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state worker.
The Clinton camp aired a 30-second television ad criticizing Dole for resigning from the Senate to concentrate on the presidential campaign. A narrator says, ``quitting, giving up, leaving behind the gridlock he helped create.''
What do these ads portend for the 1996 presidential campaign? Will this year go down as the worst since the advent of the television era? Can voters do anything to rise above this onslaught of insults?
There may be an upbeat answer to this last question, but it's not coming from the national candidates. Around the nation, there's a small but growing swell of grass-roots groups hoping to prod politicians - at all levels - to stay positive in their runs for office.
Grass-roots groups acknowledge that they probably can't do much about the tone of presidential campaigns, but they hope that changes in local and state politicking eventually will percolate to the top.
``You're not going to change politics nationally until you change politics locally with more and more communities across the country saying `enough is enough,' '' said Marlene Hundley, president of the Falls Church League of Women Voters.
Many of these grass-roots groups are concerned that negative political campaigns and attack ads push moderate and independent voters out of politics, give special interest organizations more power, generate even more public cynicism, and make it harder to attract quality candidates.
``And once elected, it's harder for them to move into the cooperative mode because what's been said during the campaign,'' said Nancy Koch, coordinator of the Rochester, N.Y. ``Project Positive Campaign,'' co-sponosred by a League of Women Voters chapter.
A popular strategy for converting voter frustration to positive action is to form coalitions with other nonpartisan groups. The idea is to create a broad-based public voice in favor of issue-oriented campaigns and against mudslinging.
Another tactic is to get candidates to be accountable for their campaigns, not blame controversial statements on their aides. ``If you can't stand up to your own campaign people,'' Koch said, ``then how are you going to stand up to other people when you're elected?''
League of Women Voters chapters across the country, including South Hampton Roads, are among the most active community groups trying to convince politicians to run positive campaigns.
Here are updates on some grass-roots efforts:
This spring, the League of Women Voters of South Hampton Roads combined forces with the Virginia Beach Council of PTAs, Virginia Beach Council of Civic Organizations and the Virginia Beach division of the Chamber of Commerce.
Together, the groups devised a list of ``Voters' Expectations of Candidates'' running for City Council and School Board. The coalition urged office-seekers to focus on real issues while refraining from distortions and personal attacks on unrelated matters.
It's difficult to assess the impact of the coalition's effort.
The nastiest campaigns usually come in head-to-head battles, such as those for the General Assembly last November. This spring, there were many multicandidate races for city councils and school boards.
Also, many of the local candidates conducted their campaigns through print advertisements, brochures and face-to-face meetings with community groups instead of through television commercials.
But Barbara Ballard, president of the local League, believes this first attempt was a learning experience for the league and its community partners. The lessons, she said, can be applied to future campaigns, probably beginning with this fall's elections for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
Ironically, the local league will try to condense its main ``stick with the issues'' message to 30-second sound bites. The longer statement of ``Voters Expectations'' was deemed too lengthy to read at some candidate forums.
Also, the league will call on candidates to document any statement they make about the records of rivals, Ballard said.
In Rochester, N.Y., the League of Women Voters created ``Project Positive Campaign'' to urge voters to evaluate all campaign materials and then contact candidates, party leaders and the news media to express their views about the tone and content of campaigns.
``People are used to contacting public officials about issues, and officials are used to being contacted by the public. So this really isn't any different to contact them while their running for office,'' Koch said.
The Rochester league works in coalition with a diverse array of other nonpartisan groups, including the Junior League of Women, several inner-city and suburban neighborhood civic leagues and the Rochester Area Council for Social Studies. The latter is made up of social studies teachers.
The first effort, last November, may have caused one candidate for district attorney to pull some television ads after public protests, said Nancy Koch, coordinator. ``They're not going to tell us that they pulled them because of complaints, but they did pull the ads. So we think there might be a linkage,'' she said.
In the works is a video of positive and negative political ads that social studies teachers can use to help students learn to analyze campaign material, Koch said.
Project Positive Campaign also may ask campaign contributors to tell candidates not to use their donations for attack ads, Koch said. ``We're not saying, `Don't support them.' But we're saying, `Ask them to run positive campaigns.' ''
In Northern Virginia, the Falls Church League of Women Voters modified a national code of fair campaign practices.
``We asked candidates and their organizations to sign the oath to show citizens what positive things they were doing in their campaigns,'' said Marlene Hundley, the chapter's president.
The code, she said, was signed by all six candidates for the City Council and all five for the School Board.
However, the chapter decided it didn't have the resources to monitor candidate compliance. That drew complaints from some candidates who wanted the league to punish the violators by publicizing their names.
``We couldn't be the campaign police, but we thought we could set the tone and give the public a tool to judge and assess campaign rhetoric and posturing,'' Hundley said.
Initially, the candidates ran positive campaigns - talking about issues and their own qualifications. However, as the elections drew closer, the bickering heated up.
Nevertheless, Hundley believes her league ``made a dent'' against the trend toward negativism. There are discussions to continue the effort with this fall's House and Senate elections, she said.
The Minnesota Compact Coalition, launched its campaign to clean up politics with a press conference - held in a coin-operated laundry.
Some news reporters criticized the gimmick, but organizers responded.
``You don't get it,'' Tim Penny, a former congressman who heads the coalition, told the news media. ``We did this to make a point. This is typically what it takes to get journalists to cover issues.''
Ned Crosby, another coalition supporter, asked the reporters: ``Are you going to follow us out of the Laundromat and cover the issues, or not? If we hadn't done this, most of you wouldn't be here.''
Besides trying to get the news media to focus on issues instead of personalities and attacks, the Minnesota Compact also wants:
Candidates to pledge accountability for their TV and radio ads by making sure their own picture and voice is in 50 percent of the commercials. That way, any negative campaigning would be directly linked to candidates who make the charges, instead of obscured by an anonymous narrator.
To foster 1,000 community discussion groups statewide. Citizens will be given campaign kits to help them analyze political statements and news stories and then make their comments known to candidates and the news media.
The Minnesota Compact is trying some nontraditional ways to reach a wide range of citizens, said Janna Haug of the coalition. For example, there may be events at the Mall of America, one of the largest indoor shopping centers in the country.
``Some people may sneer at this. But we're trying to bring our message to a public that usually doesn't get a chance to participate,'' she said.
While the coalition's effort aims at this fall's House and Senate elections in Minnesota, Haug hopes it can become a national model.
``Hopefully, the climate will change in a lot of states and that the presidential campaigns will be affected as well,'' she said. MEMO: The American News Service and the Minneapolis Star Tribune
contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
HOW TO CONTACT GRASS-ROOTS COALITIONS MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] by CNB