‘We’ve Landed; Now We Have to Infiltrate’ : Religious Groups Are Undaunted by Losses

Although none of the candidates supported by fundamentalist religious groups won a school board seat in Tuesday’s balloting, the leader of the most visible group said he is “extremely encouraged” by the number of votes the candidates received.

“For the first time around in Anaheim and south county races, I’m very pleased that we did as well as we did,” said the Rev. Lou Sheldon, head of the Anaheim-based California Coalition for Traditional Values.

“When you land on the beach, it takes a while to infiltrate the mainland,” Sheldon said. “We’ve landed. Now we have to infiltrate. The campaign begins today for 1987.”

Judging from Tuesday’s results, that may not be a moment too soon.

In the Capistrano Unified School District, fundamentalist-backed candidates Winston Lyle Frost, Victor R. Domines and Carol E. Cox were swamped nearly 2 to 1 by incumbents Jan Overton, Paul B. Haseman and Annette B. Gude.

In the neighboring Saddleback Valley district, incumbents Kristine A. Kister and Dore John Gilbert scored equally large victories over Richard Neuland and H. A. (Al) Beaubier, both of whom received campaign donations from Sheldon.

William R. (Bill) Small and Gray Farley fared a little better in the Anaheim Union High School District race, losing the third seat up for grabs by just a few percentage points to incumbent Kurt E. Haunfelner.

In all three districts, religious and parent groups have criticized the school boards for banning religious clubs from campuses during school hours. The Capistrano board has also been attacked for implementing a controversial sex education curriculum and a project aimed at helping children reject peer pressure to try drugs and alcohol.

Two other candidates, who were not supported by Sheldon but who also ran on a platform supporting “traditional values,” failed in their bids to gain seats on the Los Alamitos Unified and the Placentia Unified school boards. David Madore’s 1,596 votes in Los Alamitos were about 1,100 shy of what he needed to win, while Arden G. Anderson in Placentia, with 639 votes, did not come close to the 3,300 votes he needed.

During the campaign, the traditional-values candidates denied allegations that they were accepting money or were in some way controlled by fundamentalist groups. But the candidates did not reject the groups’ endorsements or goals.

The apparent separation, Sheldon said, was necessary because “politics is like a basketball game.”

“He (the candidate) may act like he’s not looking at the other person, but he’s waiting for the ball to come. We’re not going to let the enemy know what we’re doing,” he said.

Neuland, who said he was disappointed with the results, said Wednesday that “maybe if we had the money and support we were supposed to be getting, we might have done better.” Whatever funds he had were raised locally, “and that’s the truth,” he said.

Neuland added that the repeated allegations that he and other traditional-values candidates were controlled by Sheldon and the branding of them by opponents as “religious zealots” hurt their campaign.

“I think they (voters) got scared,” he said.

Elizabeth Parker, a member of the Orange County Board of Education who opposed Sheldon’s efforts and thinks she will be targeted by his group in the June election, acknowledged that the religious-issues candidates “got a large number of votes” despite their failure to win. “It’s not going to die. This is just round one. They’re not going to stop until they have control of the school boards,” she said.