REGIONAL REPORT : Local Candidates Advised to Go for the Gimmick : Politics: In the competition for visibility and donations, seekers of lesser offices need something different, campaign consultants say. For example, a chicken costume.

The problem for one Los Angeles candidate is how to focus attention on a local race languishing in the shadows of the glitzier presidential, senatorial and congressional primaries on the June 2 ballot. The solution, his campaign consultant believes, might be found at a North Hollywood costume shop.

“When all else fails, go with the chicken costume,” the consultant said wryly, explaining that the feathery outfit will be used this month to dramatize an opponent’s refusal to debate. “With so many other campaigns, that’s about the only way to get some attention.”

In a crowded campaign season when hundreds of local candidates feel that they are being treated like political stepchildren, shunted aside while attention is lavished on others, the chicken costume strategy is simply an unorthodox response to a widely shared lament.

With the presidential, senatorial, congressional and high-profile state legislative contests dominating press and public attention--as well as siphoning off campaign dollars and volunteers--many candidates for local office fear that they will get lost in the electoral shuffle more than usual.

“It’s been very tough this year for local candidates to fight their way through the clutter,” said Harvey Englander, a consultant to Robert Tanenbaum, candidate for Los Angeles County district attorney.

In counties throughout Southern California, hundreds of candidates will appear on the June ballot, each in competition not only with the opponents in their election, but with contenders in other races in a battle for visibility, donations and campaign workers.

Consequently, Englander, like other consultants, said he will not be surprised to see more news conference gimmickry along the lines of the chicken costume episode as candidates for low- to mid-level offices struggle to get the press and the public to notice them.

“The ‘Just the facts’ routine of the old Jack Webb days isn’t enough anymore in politics--especially local politics,” Englander said. “Now, you have to come up with the right hook for your message. To stand out, you need an attention grabber like a political whoopie cushion.”

Although local candidates’ visibility often suffers in presidential election years, the problem is particularly severe this year because both of California’s U. S. Senate seats are on the June ballot along with elections for the state’s seven new congressional seats and state legislative races made more competitive by redistricting.

“Voters generally don’t spend that much time contemplating even the more glamorous races,” said Scott Harvey, a candidate for the San Diego County Board of Education. “And let’s face it, a board of education race is a long way from being glamorous. At this point, we barely show up as a blip on the radar screen.”

Like Harvey, other local candidates have had difficulty, in the words of Assemblyman Mike Gotch (D-San Diego), “elbowing through the crowd” to occupy at least a small corner of Campaign ’92.

The competition for campaign dollars has been especially challenging, due largely to the convergence of the large number of candidates with a recession that was already tightening contributors’ purse strings. Recognizing those factors, some local candidates began their campaigns with very conservative budgets--but still have had to scale down plans as fund raising falls short of even lowered expectations.

“I have more commitments than checks so far,” said Orange County Board of Education candidate Curtis Smith. “There’s a real gap between what you’d like to do in the campaign and what you can afford to do.”

Local candidates often find that when they reach potential contributors, many others from higher-profile races have preceded them. Many traditional political donors once could be counted on to contribute to contests ranging from the national level down to local elections. This year, they are being more selective--a process that often leaves local candidates empty-handed.

“So many candidates, so little money,” sighs San Diego County supervisorial candidate Judy McCarty, who has adjusted to the financial realities of this year’s campaign in part by scheduling numerous inexpensive fund-raising events costing as little as $15 per person. “We’re trying to get a little money from a lot of people, because the bigger contributions just aren’t there.”

Aware that broader public visibility can often be parlayed into more and larger donations, local candidates have courted the press, in most cases, with little success in gaining coverage for their policy statements and other political messages.

“I doubt that most people even know that this race is occurring,” said Joan Primrose, another Orange County Board of Education candidate, echoing a common complaint. “People are much too preoccupied with the national level to give much attention to something like a school board race.”

For that reason, many local candidates, regardless of their personal preferences in the presidential race, admit that they hope that the Republican and Democratic nominations will be wrapped up long before the California primary, a scenario that could shift more media attention to local contests.

“Even if that happens, a lot of these local candidates are still going to be practically invisible,” said San Diego political consultant David Lewis. “There are plenty of exciting congressional and Assembly races out there, and everything below that is going to continue to take a back seat. About the only way to change that is to go out and do something outrageous.”

Those candidates who opt for outrageous behavior as a shortcut to media attention, however, do so at the risk of trivializing themselves and their campaigns. Even so, some strategists view gimmickry as an acceptable tool in the critical battle for visibility.

“Gimmickry can be a way of forcing the dialogue in a campaign,” said Rick Taylor, a consultant to Los Angeles County supervisorial candidate Norman Amjadi. “If it takes gimmickry to bring substantive issues to the table, so be it.”

No stranger to campaign trickery, Taylor several years ago was a consultant to a San Diego City Council candidate who burned a building industry questionnaire outside City Hall to underline her environmental record and to emphasize her differences with a pro-development incumbent. Although Taylor’s candidate won the race, she was the one who got her fingers singed by the stunt, as her post-election acceptance of developer contributions played a major role in a successful recall effort.

“We might use some gimmicks this year, but they won’t involve burning any questionnaires,” Taylor said.