NRA, Abortion Foes Plan Last-Ditch Smear Operation, Says Hunter

The Republican nominee in next week’s 76th Assembly District election charged Thursday that she was being targeted by a last-minute smear campaign funded by the National Right to Life Committee and the National Rifle Assn.

Tricia Hunter said her office anonymously received a schedule of planned last-minute hit pieces indicating the two national groups are spending a combined total of $163,000 to send out 11 campaign pieces that would benefit write-in candidate Dick Lyles, a more conservative Republican who placed second to Hunter in October’s primary. The election is Tuesday.

The purported schedule--which listed the dates, nature and costs of the mailings--was typed beneath the letterhead of the National Right to Life Committee. It listed 11 mailings scheduled to arrive in mailboxes in the district beginning Wednesday and running through Monday. Beside a brief description of the material was, in parentheses, the notation of either “NRA” or “NRTL.”

Heston Telegram Listed

Among the listings were a “(Charlton) Heston Telegram--(NRTL)” scheduled to be mailed today for delivery on Saturday.

Hunter’s campaign staff said the first possible such piece arrived Thursday--a letter from Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado). The purported schedule called for a “Duncan Hunter Letter--(NRA).” But there was no indication in the letter that it came from, or was financed by, the NRA.

The letter chastised Republicans for nominating a “liberal” to represent the party in the runoff. But it did not appear to be a political hit piece. Its most stinging line, for instance, read: “By electing liberal candidates in solidly conservative Republican districts, we are sending Republicans to the Assembly who will side with groups like NOW (National Organization for Women) and ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) in supporting predominantly Democrat positions.”

Lyles’ campaign staff said it had no knowledge of that letter, which apparently was addressed to (Republican) “Central Committee member.” Duncan Hunter’s office could not be reached for comment.

Lyles, unlike Tricia Hunter, opposes abortion and gun control and already has received some assistance from the two organizations. But Lyles said Thursday he knows of no last-minute campaigning by the NRA and the National Right to Life Committee on his behalf, and said he would be stunned if it materialized.

“This campaign has gotten its source of energy from people’s prayers,” Lyles said. “If $163,000 were to be spent for me on the last weekend, I’d be the first to proclaim that a miracle occurred. I can’t imagine that it would happen, but, if it does, we’ll start planning the victory party right now.”

Groups Deny Campaign

Political action advisers for both organizations, however, vehemently denied any such last-minute campaign activity.

Richard Gardner, director of state and local affairs for the NRA in Washington, said the powerful lobbying group, although already having contributed $10,000 to Lyles’ candidacy, “absolutely is not involved” in any last-minute campaigning on behalf of Lyles.

“We have sent letters to our members in the district endorsing Lyles, and that’s all we’ve done,” Gardner said of a previous effort. “We have engaged in no independent expenditure campaign and don’t intend to and will not do so. We have not, and will not--and any decision would have been made by me and no one else.”

Spokesmen for the National Right to Life Committee said the organization already spent $5,000 for a mailing that was sent out earlier this week to selected voters, but planned no other action other than to ask supporters to volunteer on Lyles’ behalf.

“It sounds like a joke to me,” said Janet Carroll, associate Western director of the organization, after seeing the schedule. “It’s our letterhead, all right, but we’d never do anything in conjunction with another group, unless it was another right-to-life organization. Someone has taken our letterhead and put these mailings on it.

“If whoever put this out is claiming it came out of our office, that is the smear. We’ll send this to our attorneys.”

Brad Mattes, assistant for political action for the organization, added:

“We don’t have the kind of money to make those kinds of expenditures.”

Hunter campaign aide Rob Lapsley said Thursday that his staff members first “got a whiff” of the expected mailings Tuesday and confirmed it to their satisfaction Wednesday when they received the purported schedule of the mailings.

Hoping Groups Will ‘Back Off’

“We’re hoping that now that we know about it, they’ll back off,” he said.

Asked why opponents would deny--or cancel--a campaign mailing just because the target of it learned of it beforehand, Lapsley said: “We don’t know. We’re watching the mail very closely, though. The answer will be in the mail. But, if you were doing a smear campaign, won’t you deny it first and deal with it after the election, rather than admit it beforehand?”

Hunter, citing the purported schedule, said, “It is obvious that these two extremist groups are setting up a very expensive last-minute smear campaign based entirely on personal attacks against me . . . not allowing me enough time to provide the voters with a fair response.”

October’s primary election attracted national interest because it pitted competing Republicans who were on different sides of the fence on the abortion issue--a critical matter, given the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in July that gave states new powers to regulate abortions.

In that primary, Hunter defeated Lyles by a scant 197-vote margin, putting her on the runoff ballot against Democrat Jeannine Correia, who, like Hunter, holds a pro-choice stance on abortion.

Lyles, stung by the defeat when he had openly predicted victory, has since mounted his write-in campaign to the consternation of Republicans who fear he will take some of the Republican votes from Hunter and allow a Democrat to win in the heavily Republican district, which runs from the South Bay into the desert communities of Riverside County.

The election will fill the vacancy created by the death of Assemblyman Bill Bradley (R-Escondido) last June.