Seeks IRS Help : Korenstein Says Foes Illegally Used Donations

Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein filed complaints Tuesday with the Internal Revenue Service and the state Franchise Tax Board asking that a fundamentalist group be stripped of its tax-exempt status for illegally using donations to campaign against her.

An attorney for Korenstein, Brad J. Sherman, said the Orange County-based California Coalition for Traditional Values has violated state and federal laws that prohibit the group from participating in political campaigns and supporting candidates with tax-exempt donations.

Sherman asked the IRS to strip the group of its tax-exempt status and to impose a special excise tax on the group for “engaging in prohibited political activity,” according to a letter delivered Tuesday to the IRS office in Los Angeles.

David Donaldson, coalition state field director, denied Korenstein’s charges. He said the group does not support any candidate in the April 11 school board election and has not raised funds for any candidate. “We are strictly an educational organization,” he said.

Supports Project 10

However, some coalition members have said privately that they are targeting Korenstein for defeat because she supports Project 10, a district counseling program for gay and lesbian students, and the district’s three school-based health clinics, which dispense birth-control information and devices.

“These are basically scare tactics,” Donaldson said. “But we will not back down.”

The coalition’s founder and longtime gay-rights opponent, Louis Sheldon, said last month that he and his group oppose Project 10, as well as the availability of birth-control information and devices at district health clinics.

Sheldon said that the group is not endorsing a candidate but added that Korenstein’s leading opponent, Barbara Romey, “has more interest in family values” because she opposes those programs.

Romey’s Hopes

Romey said she hopes to benefit from the coalition’s interest in her positions.

Korenstein has called the coalition a group of “right-wing fanatics” and has called for all candidates to denounce the group.

Sheldon has said that the group plans to distribute information on the six candidates for the west San Fernando Valley school board seat to congregation members of more than 50 fundamentalist churches in the Valley. State and federal laws allow tax-exempt organizations to distribute “voter guides” that provide such information, Donaldson said.

“We just want to get out where the candidates stand on Project 10 and the clinics, the issues we feel our constituents are interested in,” Donaldson said.