Republican YAF Tricks Were Hardly a Treat

The Republican state convention last weekend in San Diego was supposed to be a joyous time of party unity and Democrat-bashing.

But the guerrilla theater and political high jinks of the Young Americans for Freedom left another Republican group, the gay-and-lesbian Log Cabin Club, fuming that YAFers are the GOP equivalent of skinheads.

On Saturday, YAF members from San Diego and Orange counties staged demonstrations outside the convention hall to mock the pro-choice movement and to oppose increased government funding of AIDS research.

To stress their anti-abortion feelings, YAFers dressed in surgical gowns, masks and rubber gloves, and smeared themselves with fake blood. To blast the very idea of homosexual groups at a Republican convention, they shouted “No Special Rights for Sodomites” and other slogans.

Later, a raunchy flyer was slipped under the doors of conventioneers, purportedly inviting them to a wild party with the Log Cabin Club as host. And two attempts were made to steal the Log Cabin Club banner.

Jim Bieber, chairman of YAF’s Orange County chapter, said he was pleased with YAF’s demonstrations--and one Friday by the San Diego chapter during a stop in Chula Vista by Michael Dukakis.

Look for more such tactics from YAF as Election Day approaches, said Bieber, who works for Scoreboard magazine, which rates political candidates on its moral issues.

“We’ve learned a political lesson from the past,” Bieber said. “We want to adapt for the 1980s and beyond some of the political theatrics that the left wing used so effectively in the 1960s.”

He rates the convention a success even though a proposal to expel homosexual groups was defeated. He defends the fake flyer as “a way to remind Republicans what the gay life style is all about” but says YAF was not behind the banner heist.

“As staunch believers in property rights, we could never condone theft,” Bieber said.

Stan Berry, past president of the Log Cabin Club in San Diego, said he is convinced that the banner thief he caught was a YAF member. He finds YAF’s tactics repulsive.

“The YAFers are really a fringe, fringe part of the party,” Berry said. “They’re the skinheads of the Republican Party.”

Despite the YAF harassment, Berry thinks the Log Cabin members had the last laugh.

The group had a private, 45-minute meeting with Rep. Newt Gingrich, the super-conservative from Georgia who gave the convention’s keynote speech.

Gingrich was impressed to learn that nearly half of homosexuals consider themselves political conservatives, Berry said. In Washington, a spokeswoman for Gingrich declined comment on the meeting.

SDG&E; a Poor Example

If you’re visiting North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin or Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, be prepared for advertisements reminding you of the high utility rates charged by San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

Northern States Power Co. has begun an advertising blitz using radio, television, newspapers, magazines and freeway billboards to remind their 1.2 million customers of their good fortune. The ads contrast Northern States’ rates with those of other publicly owned utilities, including SDG&E.;

Michelle Juntunen, manager of “paid communication” at Northern States, said the ads have been a whopping success. Before the ads, only 17% of customers knew Northern States had such low rates. Now it’s 55% and growing.

No campaign is without a setback, however.

Three billboards outside Minneapolis-St. Paul had to be removed. The three-dimensional boards had huge shirts, boxer shorts, socks and dish towels hanging on a huge clothesline.

The message: “Washing These Would Cost 70% More in San Diego.”

Problem was that somebody kept stealing the oversize clothes, which had been designed by a theatrical prop shop. The gargantuan boxer shorts, festooned with red hearts, were particularly popular.

“We’re not sure what people were doing with the clothes, but we decided to take down the billboards in the name of public safety,” Juntunen said.

No protest about the ads is planned from SDG&E; boss Tom Page, unlike the Houston utility chief who groused directly to his Northern States counterpart. Still, SDG&E; would like the local record to be complete.

“I’m sure Northern States doesn’t know about the rate decreases we’ve asked for,” said SDG&E; spokeswoman Karen Duncan. If approved, rates could drop 7%, she noted.

Elvis Still in Running

Pssst, Elvis Presley is coming to the Wild Animal Park.

Organizers of this year’s Running Wild 10K run and 2-mile walk, a fund-raiser for the park’s education and conservation programs, have promised to have Elvis as the honorary starter.

“By the time the Oct. 9 race day comes around, we will have Elvis, or someone who looks a lot like him, at the starting line,” pledged organizer Don Armstrong.