‘Clinton Cavalry’ Saddles Up for N.Y. : Politics: A group of Hollywood insiders wants to re-energize the Democratic Party.

What group of young Hollywood politicos has become the fastest-growing political action committee in town? They’re not stars. Or musicians. And please don’t confuse them with the Brat Pack, those Tinseltown activists of yesteryear.

They go by the unwieldy title, Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century (Los Angeles chapter). Their mission: to help “re-energize” the party.

“It’s a natural association for a lot of us who are serious about the issues but didn’t feel a part of existing Democratic groups,” said Elizabeth Guber, 27, who has one of the more recognizable last names in the PAC. Her uncle, Peter Guber, is chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. She is senior vice president of Fried/Woods Films.

Local DL21C membership, which started at zero late last year and totals nearly 300 today, is composed of screenwriters, junior studio executives, entertainment lawyers, talent agents and others. Actors are not unwelcome, they just aren’t celebrated as they might be in another group. Cost to join: $25. Political bent: neo-conservative on economics, liberal on social issues. They are mostly in their late 20s and early 30s. In short, Clinton Democrats, supporters of the presumptive Democratic nominee, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

About a dozen members--a handful from Hollywood joined by those from other chapters--will canvas the floor of the Democratic National Convention next week talking to delegates and party regulars about the importance of the youth vote and how best to re-interest the post-baby boom generation in politics. Only 36.2% of 18- to 24-year-olds voted in the 1988 presidential election.

Members said they aren’t waiting around to be courted by the Democratic establishment and challenged notions that all young adults are turned off to the system. And, they emphasized, in what better industry could an invigorated youth get the word out?

“This is an insular town and it’s easy to pick up the phone and network,” said Lesa Slaughter, 27, an agent trainee at International Creative Management. “It’s a creative place and people with ideas and motivation to get involved and change things can be organized fairly easily.”

As DL21C co-founder and national chairman J. B. Pritzker sees it: “People in Hollywood have a better understanding of how to appeal to our generation, how to get young people back into the political process.” The group claims several thousand members in 15 chapters nationwide. “We’d rather have Hollywood image-makers on our side. They have a better understanding of us than the 45- to 60-year-old political consultants living in Washington.”

And as only a well-connected Hollywood group could, DL21C plans to release its own commercial spot at the convention to be aired later in several national markets, including Los Angeles and New York. It looks back over 30 years of events that have led young people to become cynical and disenfranchised--with an ending designed to inspire renewed idealism about government.

“It’s very well-produced. Not a film-school piece,” said Alan Gould, 30, an attorney who is the group’s national media adviser. “Just the fact that a group of young people from Hollywood that might be accused of being yuppies are getting together to do something--that’s a feat in itself these days.”

The “Clinton Cavalry,” as Gould has dubbed the group, meets once a month in a Westside coffeehouse or goes en masse to Democratic events. Early on in the campaign, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) spoke to them. In May, they joined other local Democrats at the trendy Shark Club to hear Hillary Clinton talk about her husband’s positions on the environment and education. They joined other volunteers in helping to clean up burned and ravaged areas in South-Central Los Angeles after the recent riots.

“We’re not trying to attract people who just want to come see the stars,” said Pritzker, 27. “That’s not what we’re about.”

And, just to put DL21C’s potential in perspective, Gould added: “After all, in five years these people are going to be running this town.”