THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310415
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 87 lines
The federal government's lawsuit against the Christian Coalition homes in on the group's voter guides, widely considered to be the coalition's most effective tool for mobilizing voters and influencing their choices at the voting booth.
The guides are simple and short: 8-by-5-inch handbills display opposing candidates' views on a narrow band of issues. They are typically distributed at churches, sometimes with the added benefit of a minister's praise.
Both elements - the short, dramatic style of the guide and the distribution from a trusted source - are vital to the impact on voters, according to both candidates and election experts.
``Information about candidates is put in the hands of people who are likely to pay attention,'' said John Green, a professor at University of Akron and author of several books on religion and politics. ``It comes from a source that's trusted. They don't distribute them in places where people are hostile.''
The Federal Election Commission lawsuit alleges that the coalition used the guides, along with mail and telephone banks, to promote Republicans for president and Congress. The lawsuit argues that the coalition, which claims tax-exempt status, should have reported its spending as independent expenditures or in-kind contributions to candidates.
The coalition says that all of its activity is educational and nonpartisan, so it is not required to report the sources of its approximately $21 million budget or how that money is spent.
A sizable chunk of the budget goes toward producing millions of voter guides for local, state and national elections. The coalition's spokesman, Mike Russell, said the group plans to release from 45 million to 50 million guides for this year's presidential and congressional races. The lawsuit seeks a legal order against the activity.
Russell said he didn't think that the case would halt the coalition's November effort. ``I don't believe it will have any impact on voter guide distribution this year,'' he said.
Russell said he did not know how many guides would be distributed in Virginia, but said the guides would focus on contested Senate and House campaigns, including the race between Sen. John W. Warner and Democratic challenger Mark Warner.
The coalition produced 750,000 guides for the Republican primary between Sen. Warner and James C. Miller III. Warner, whose political stands have angered the conservative wing of his party, attacked the guides as unfairly favoring Miller, partly through the biased selection of issues to highlight.
Larry Sabato, a political scientist at University of Virginia, said the coalition ``manipulates items on the voter guides'' to rig them toward its favorites. He said the coalition will specifically avoid an issue - even a high-profile one like term limits - if the result would help a Democrat in the minds of conservative Christian voters.
The coalition's guides for national races are all produced at its Chesapeake headquarters. The coalition's state and local chapters are consulted and sometimes produce guides for state and local races, but the national office has oversight on every one. ``You can't produce or distribute guides without our approval,'' Russell said.
The guides get to the churches in the cars of local volunteers, saving the coalition the cost of postage stamps. Sometimes, the guides are ferried to hundreds of churches in a region like Hampton Roads. But the distribution network sometimes breaks down - and the guides end up stacked in a volunteer's garage instead of in the pews.
``Without that distribution system, the voter guides are not terribly important,'' said Green.
Sometimes the guides are stopped at the church door. Last year, for instance, Bishop Walter F. Sullivan warned all Catholic churches in the Richmond diocese against accepting the guides. His diocese includes Hampton Roads. Since then, other Catholic bishops have taken stands against the guides.
Green noted that a national election study in 1994 indicated that 18 percent of voters had ``some kind of contact'' with a religious group's voter guides. However, that was not specifically limited to the Christian Coalition.
Virginia Beach lawyer Moody E. ``Sonny'' Stallings Jr., a former state legislator defeated in 1991 by Kenneth W. Stolle with the Christian Coalition's help, said the group's efforts were a key factor in his loss.
``They did direct mail and they put voter guides in various churches,'' he said. ``They did these at no charge to my opponent.
``Any time a candidate has financial support from a group that hides that support, they have an advantage.'' MEMO: Staff Writer Tony Wharton contributed to this report.
Main article on page A1.
KEYWORDS: RELIGION AND POLITICS by CNB