Giving a False Stamp of Approval With Mailers

As each election nears, they fill California mailboxes: brightly colored cards with authoritative names recommending dozens of candidates for public office.

The California Law Enforcement Voter Guide. Democratic Voters Choice. The Official Non-Partisan Voter Guide of California.

These are some of the names behind one of the most idiosyncratic tools in California politics: slate mailers put out by independent consultants and publishers as profit-making enterprises.

They typically include a list of “endorsed” candidates, but the sponsors are not political parties or other “official” organizations.

Frank Daly said a concurrence of slates endorsing Lynn Diane Olson for a Superior Court judgeship in Los Angeles County persuaded him to vote for her.

Daly, a Woodland Hills Republican, said he came to regret the decision after learning that his candidate, who unseated a respected sitting judge, was an owner of a bagel shop and four other businesses who had not focused on the law in 14 years.

“I voted for this lady solely on these pieces sent to me,” Daly said. “I don’t really trust a lot of those things anyway, but I didn’t have any other avenue to base my decision on.”

Long controversial in political circles for their mercenary approach of including just about any candidate willing to pay, slate mailers appear to have played major roles in last week’s primaries, particularly in obscure races, according to political consultants as well as losing and winning campaigns.

“It definitely had an impact in the race,” said Jeff Duclos, who lost his bid for a Hermosa City Council seat to a candidate listed on a number of slates.

The victorious Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor, secretary of state and state controller, as well as the Republican candidate for treasurer, relied more heavily on the mailers than their opponents, records show.

Olson paid $74,950 -- 87% of her campaign spending through May 20 -- to be listed on 18 slates, including Parents Ballot Guide and the Asian American Vote Guide.

“It’s just a thing to make sure people recognize your name,” said her husband and campaign manager, Michael Keegan.

Though Olson is a Democrat who was rated “not qualified” by the Los Angeles County Bar Assn., she was endorsed in Citizens for Responsible Government, a Republican-oriented slate, which called her “well qualified” and “the Republican choice!”

Allan Hoffenblum, the slate’s publisher, called Olson’s inclusion an embarrassment that he blamed on himself for not screening her application more carefully.

“She requested it, she sent in her money and she got on the slate,” he said, adding that if her opponent, Judge Dzintra Janavs, had also asked to be included he would have evaluated the candidates more closely.

Though a campaign’s inclusion is often based primarily on its willingness to pay, many of the slates are designed to look like quasi-official endorsements. That sometimes leads to contradictory pairings.

For instance, this year’s Democratic Voters Choice slate, which told recipients to “Vote Democratic!” urged a “no” vote on Proposition 82.

But Rob Reiner’s universal preschool initiative was endorsed by the California Democratic Party and most of the legislators on the slate.

A business group, Stop the Reiner Initiative, paid $60,000 to be included on the Democratic Voters Choice slate, according to records filed with the secretary of state.

In order to learn about the financial angle, however, a voter would have had to untangle this double-negative disclosure in small print at the bottom of the slate: “Not paid for or authorized by candidates and ballot measures not marked by an *.” (In other words, the candidates with an asterisk next to their names paid to be included.)

The slate’s publisher, Burbank consultant Tom Kaptain, did not respond to requests for comment.

Originally conceived as a moneysaving way for candidates to share a piece of mail, slates have become more popular among campaigns as the costs of television time and postage have increased.

Fifty-eight slates are registered with the state. The most popular have mailing lists that target specific groups -- the elderly, the military, ideological partisans, Latinos -- and focus on those who are most likely to vote.

“If you are running in a low-profile office, it is the only way you can communicate with voters,” said Fred Huebscher, a Hermosa Beach consultant who published two slates for the primary: the John F. Kennedy Alliance, aimed at Democratic voters, and the California Law Enforcement Voter Guide, which targets GOP voters.

Law enforcement officers do not select the candidates to be included for the latter guide, Huebscher acknowledged, adding that the title was meant to convey that the candidates were “pro-law enforcement.”

He declined to say how the candidates were chosen, but records show some campaigns paid $40,000 to be included on his slates.

Slate publishers can pull in a hefty profit. The COPS Voters Guide, published by the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs, charged its endorsed candidates $1 million in 2004 but spent $751,079 to put out the mailers, according to public filings.

Not everyone agrees that slate mailers are as effective as their publishers claim. In the Republican primary for state treasurer, Abel Maldonado spent $503,100 on slates -- more than half his campaign budget -- but was defeated by Tony Strickland, who spent $216,158 on slates.

Still, few campaigns are willing to pass them up out of fear that their opponents will gain a monopoly of the type that can persuade a voter like Daly. In addition, some slate publishers use high-pressure tactics, campaigns complain.

“It is in a sense kind of a blackmail game,” said Garry South, the strategist for Steve Westly’s unsuccessful campaign for governor, which spent $104,745 on slates even though South said he believes they are ineffective. (The winning Democrat, Phil Angelides, spent $298,500.)

“What they try to tell you,” South said, is “the other guy is trying to buy my slate but I’d rather have you, so I’ll give you a price break. If you don’t do that, I’m going to have no choice but sell to the other guy.”

Scott Hart, a Newport Beach political consultant who publishes a slate called Continuing the Republican Revolution, said there is no hard sell to candidates.

“The first person who calls me, I’ll negotiate with them first,” Hart said. “If it doesn’t work out, then if I get a call from another candidate, I’ll work with them. I don’t pit candidates against each other.”