Republicans File Complaint Against Firm That Mailed Misleading Flyers

The state Republican Party filed a complaint Monday with the Fair Political Practices Commission against a group that mailed out flyers depicting two Democrats running in San Fernando Valley nonpartisan races as Reagan Republicans.

State GOP President Frank Visco also said he would use the flyer to help lobby for legislation preventing such commercial mailers, which he said are produced by profit-seeking firms with few or no political convictions.

“I’d like to get some kind of legislation introduced to protect the voters from this,” Visco said. “Otherwise people can’t trust anyone in the political arena.”

Los Angeles City Council candidate Lyle Hall and Los Angeles school board candidate Julie Korenstein were both named in brochures that welcomed former President Ronald Reagan home to California and urged voters to send him Father’s Day cards.

Korenstein has acknowledged paying $1,500 to appear on one of the mailers, but said she did not see it before it was mailed. After checking further Monday, Hall reiterated that he never approved the mailer, nor does he have any record of paying for it.

Korenstein Mailer in Complaint

Only the Korenstein mailer, which also urged a “yes” vote for two Los Angeles college board candidates, was included in the complaint. However, GOP spokesman John Kurzweil said the Hall mailer might be added to it.

The complaint alleges that L.A. Taxpayers Alliance--which produced the mailers--did not include a disclaimer indicating that the organization is not an official Republican Party group. Sandra Michioku, spokeswoman for the FPPC, said such mailers must include the statement: “Not an official political party organization.”

Charles Bell, the Sacramento attorney who filed the complaint on behalf of the GOP, wrote that: “In fact, the slate mailer attempts to trade on such Republican symbols as the . . . officially registered elephant logo, the picture of former President Ronald Reagan and purported endorsements by identified Republican officeholders.”

Bell said that as far as his firm can determine, L.A. Taxpayers Alliance was formed for the sole purpose of soliciting candidate contributions for mailers. Records at the secretary of state’s office show that L.A. Taxpayers Alliance was formed March 22 by Fred Huebscher.

Huebscher has also filed statements with the secretary of state saying that he has formed or is forming several other slate mailer organizations, including “Victory ‘88” and “Victory ‘90-94,” Bell said.

Huebscher did not return repeated calls. However past Times stories identified him as a sales representative active in Democratic Party politics.

Commercial mailers not linked to any particular political campaign, party or cause have become increasingly common in the past few years, Visco said.

No Disclaimer

In 1986, a group called Republic Media produced an allegedly Republican slate that tied a long list of Republican candidates to a “no” vote on Proposition 51, the “deep-pockets” insurance initiative favored by many Republicans. There was no disclaimer on that flyer either.

During the investigation of the Republic Media mailer, several witnesses told the Fair Political Practices Commission that the company had first offered to sell space on the flyer to the pro-51 campaign, but the offer was rejected.

Partly as a result of that flyer, state legislators passed a law later that spring calling for stricter controls, including requiring commercial mailer organizations to register and to use disclaimers. Legislation pending in Sacramento would further tighten the disclaimer rule.