POLITICS / HIRED GUNS : For-Hire Campaign Advisers Trying to Clean Up Their Act

Not since the last big stage robbery have so many hired guns been assembled in one place.

But, instead of six shooters, members of this hard-bitten crew packed polling data, mailing lists and video cassettes. They gathered this week at an airport motel for the national meeting of the American Assn. of Political Consultants, and the first order of business was to defend their livelihood in the face of mounting complaints that they are largely to blame for the low level of present day political campaigns.

Even before the more than 100 strategists and technicians in attendance began their public discussions of such subjects as campaign management and advertising design, their leaders in private sessions took the first steps toward self-reform. They voted to review the group’s 20-year-old ethical code, which includes broad pledges not to “indulge in any activity which would corrupt or degrade the practice of political campaigning” and “to refrain from false and misleading attacks on any opponent.”

The aim of the review is to tighten the prescribed rules and find a way to enforce them.

OPINIONS WANTED: As part of the review process, the association’s board of directors approved a proposal to hold two conferences next year, one at William and Mary College in Virginia, the other tentatively planned for the Claremont Colleges in California, to collect the opinions of journalists, officeholders and scholars on such controversial matters as negative advertising and campaign financing.

“Consultants have some responsibility to the governing process and the political process,” Ralph Murphine, chairman of the association’s ethics committee, said in an interview. “We just can’t go out and throw mud on the walls.”

Indeed, some members favor stronger measures than those taken here. Washington-based consultant Sal Guzzetta submitted to the board of directors a proposal for certifying consultants, like accountants. Under Guzzetta’s plan, consultants with five years of experience could be designated as certified political consultants by passing a comprehensive examination covering all aspects of a political campaign.

Guzzetta argues that assuring that consultants are knowledgeable about their craft will remedy much of the criticism of their tactics. “If we can show consultants how to run a positive campaign, then they won’t need to run negative campaigns,” Guzzetta contends.

He warned that, unless consultants act soon to clean up their own act, “it will be just a matter of time before legislative action is taken.”

The increasing criticism of consultants is a reflection of their dramatic increase in importance in recent years. The association, founded in 1968 by fewer than 50 consultants, now has more than 600 members who work for candidates at every level of government from town council to the White House.

The rise to power of consultants has been abetted by the development of new political technologies in such areas as television, polling and fund raising, and by the decline of political parties, which in the past had provided candidates with the support they needed.

Critics complain that consultants, particularly those without local ties, feel little responsibility either to a community or to a party and are driven only by the desire to reap the financial rewards of success.

CAUSE OR SYMPTOM?: But consultants contend that their controversial tactics are only a symptom, not the cause, of the malaise that many believe afflicts the political system. “We’re only hired to do one thing,” said Ray Strother, co-chairman of the Houston meeting. “We’re hired to win.”

Brad O’Leary, president of the association, said that it is candidates who are ultimately responsible for the tactics of their campaigns. “I never knew a consultant yet who put his own negative ad on the air and raised the money to pay for it,” he said.