Arts Advocates Open Drive to Beat Rohrabacher

Arts supporters angered by U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s efforts to rein in the National Endowment for the Arts have formed a political action committee in an effort to unseat the Lomita Republican in the Nov. 6 general election.

Long Beach Museum of Art Director Harold Nelson said donations to the PAC will be used to pay for cable TV ads against Rohrabacher in his 42nd Congressional District, which follows the coast from Torrance to Huntington Beach.

“People in this district have sat back and listened to the rantings and ravings of this extremist long enough,” Nelson, treasurer of the committee, said. “Now we’re doing something about it.”

Creation of the new PAC, called the Southern California Coalition for Responsible Government, is scheduled to be formally announced Friday at a press conference outside Rohrabacher’s Los Alamitos district offices. It is the latest in a series of moves by arts activists to combat conservatives who want to prohibit NEA grants for arts projects that could be considered obscene or sacrilegious.

The committee’s organizers belong to the Long Beach/Orange County chapter of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression, a Washington lobbying group created in April to fight limitations on NEA funding of the arts.

When the national group was formed, its organizers said one of their first tasks would be to launch grass-roots campaigns against Rohrabacher and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), the leaders of the drive to restrict NEA grants.

Rohrabacher predicted that the effort will backfire. In an interview, the first-term congressman said only a small number of affluent voters in his district oppose content limits on federal arts grants. Though that will cost him some political contributions, he said, his stand will also win him blue-collar votes.

“I believe it is one of the strongest issues Republicans have to run on this year,” said Rohrabacher, who won election to Congress in 1988 after serving as a speech writer for President Reagan. “The polls I’ve seen say a solid majority of people think the government should be out of the arts altogether.”

The new PAC was formed last week as an independent expenditure committee, according to the Federal Election Commission. That means it cannot coordinate its activities with Rohrabacher’s opponents, Democrat Guy C. Kimbrough of Huntington Beach and Libertarian Richard Martin of Long Beach.

Organizers say the group intends to devote itself exclusively to criticizing the policy positions taken by Rohrabacher, mainly through the use of cable TV ads that will be aired after Labor Day.

The ads are being produced with volunteer help from Bill Viola, a nationally recognized video artist who lives in Long Beach, and video and film producer Peter Kirby of Santa Monica.

Only a portion of the ad campaign will concentrate on the arts issue, those involved in the project say. There will also be ads criticizing other aspects of Rohrabacher’s record, such as his support for banning abortion and for oil drilling off the California coast, they say.

“We’re going beyond the art issue because this is a community issue,” Viola said. “We think Rohrabacher is out of touch with the community.”

Rohrabacher dismisses that strategy as proof that PAC organizers are not confident that the public widely supports the NEA.

“The fact that they’re trying to talk about other issues suggests they don’t have popular support for the issue that motivated them in the first place,” Rohrabacher said.

The congressman’s critics acknowledge that it will be difficult to dislodge Rohrabacher on Nov. 6. In the 42nd District, Republicans enjoy a solid 53% to 36% voter registration advantage over Democrats.

And Kimbrough, who lost to Rohrabacher in the 1988 general election, has far less campaign cash than the incumbent. As of June 30, the Mt. San Jacinto College political science instructor had raised $9,265 compared to Rohrabacher’s $72,302.

Still, organizers of the committee say they will turn to their long-range plan if Rohrabacher wins in November. Said Nelson: “In that case, we hope to lay the groundwork for an attractive Republican challenger two years down the road.”