Christian Right Tries to Take Over State GOP : Politics: Activists are focusing on Assembly races in campaigns largely financed by four businessmen.

The Christian right is waging an extensive and well-financed fall campaign in California aimed at expanding its power in the Assembly and threatening the Republican Party leadership of moderate Gov. Pete Wilson.

Combining forces with anti-tax and gun-owner groups, religious right activists from San Diego to Sacramento are following up a massive “in pew” voter registration drive by distributing 3.9 million voter guides on “family issues” to more than 15,000 churches statewide.

Their efforts have been largely financed by four wealthy Southern California businessmen who have poured more than $1 million into the campaigns of conservative candidates. Only the California Medical PAC had contributed more to political campaigns as of June 30.

The goal is to wrest control of the state Republican Party from Wilson’s moderate wing by increasing the number of hard-line conservatives in the Assembly, leaders of the Christian right say. They hope to capture at least eight of 12 key Assembly races in which there are candidates who are backed financially and otherwise by the religious right. Nine of the 12 seats being sought have no incumbents.

At the very least, the projected victories by religious right-backed Republicans would mean that conservatives, not more-moderate Wilson allies, would hold sway over the Assembly’s minority caucus, which can effectively block budget or spending plans that require a two-thirds vote.

But leaders of the religious right are hoping for much more: a sweep by their candidates that would help Assembly Republicans capture at least 38 seats, enough to strike a deal with friendly Democrats and seize some choice committee assignments in the lower chamber. The 80-member Assembly is controlled by Democrats, who hold a 47-to-33 majority.

The religious right is largely ignoring the state Senate because only half the seats are up for election and the potential for conservative gains are minimal.

“I can’t think of another election year where there is so much at stake,” said Ralph Reed, executive director of the Virginia-based Christian Coalition, an outgrowth of the Rev. Pat Robertson’s 1988 presidential campaign. The coalition, which claims 250,000 members nationwide--11,000 in California--has played a key role in registering like-minded voters and advancing the religious right movement throughout the state.

“If we win the (California) Assembly races, that would be a big blow for Gov. Wilson,” Reed said. “The ice would be very thin underneath his seat.”

Setting its sights on Assembly and congressional districts represents a new step in California for the religious right, which has captured dozens of school board and city council positions in the past two years, mostly through “stealth” campaigns in which candidates’ religious convictions were downplayed or obscured.

But the movement’s new efforts have spurred counter campaigns across the state.

“They are not getting a free ride,” said Robin Schneider, a member of the California Abortion Rights Action League. “Once people find out who they are, they are politically dead in the water.”

People for the American Way Action Fund, a national civil liberties group founded by television producer Norman Lear, released a 19-page report late last month on the political activities of the Christian right in the state and the nation.

“The November elections in California are going to be the ultimate test of how successful the religious right is in its new grass-roots efforts,” said Michael Hudson, regional director of the American Way. “Observers all over the country are going to be watching the California elections. If the religious right is successful in November, it’s going to step up their efforts in other states.”

Christian conservatives are hoping this election will advance a moral agenda that would make abortions illegal, counter the gains of gay rights advocates and halt the sale of sex-oriented magazines from news racks and convenience stores. Their candidates also support the conservative causes of lowering taxes, downsizing government, repealing gun control laws and using state-issued vouchers to send children to private and parochial schools.

Long at odds with conservatives over the abortion issue, Wilson further widened the philosophical and cultural gap with the far right since taking office. He has been chastised for appointing moderate state Sen. John Seymour to the U.S. Senate, approving tax and fee increases to balance the 1991 state budget and, more recently, for signing a compromise bill outlawing job discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Orange County attorney Michael Schroeder, chairman of the California Republican Assembly, a conservative political volunteer group, said a backlash against Wilson is driving the conservative movement.

“In some respects, Pete Wilson has been a greater rallying cry for conservatives than (Democratic Assembly Speaker) Willie Brown,” he said. “Willie Brown is a member of the Democratic Party and is not a threat to purge conservatives from the Republican Party.”

If the religious right is successful next month, Christian Coalition’s Reed said Wilson will be forced to unite with conservatives or pay the political price.

“He’s got to not only pay us lip service, he has to answer the policy concerns of the Christian right,” Reed said. “If he doesn’t, he faces the possibility of being defeated in his reelection bid in 1994.”

Wilson’s camp downplayed the religious right’s influence on Assembly races and its perceived threat to the governor’s GOP power base.

“Is there tension in the party between the far right and the moderate factions? Yes,” said George Gorton, Wilson’s political consultant. “But I think most of the people who are running for office on the Republican slate, if not all, are people that Pete Wilson can work with. Most of them are our candidates.”

Gorton said Wilson has done “everything possible” to help elect Republican Assembly candidates such as Redondo Beach Mayor W. Brad Parton, who is running in the 53rd Assembly District, and Dick Daleke, a candidate in the 76th Assembly District race in San Diego County. Both candidates, whom Wilson did not support in the primaries, have received strong financial and campaign support from Christian right groups.

In another attempt to reach out to conservatives, Wilson vetoed a more comprehensive civil rights bill authored by Speaker Brown that included stronger anti-discrimination language protecting gay men and women than the one the governor approved.

But despite Wilson’s conciliatory moves, the Christian right does not appear to be appeased.

Another slap was delivered to Wilson recently when state Republican Party Chairman Jim Dignan, a frequent critic of the governor, hired hard-line conservative and former Assembly candidate Barbara Alby to conduct a voter outreach program. Alby lost a brutal fight for the Republican nomination in the 5th Assembly District, which covers most of Sacramento County, to Assemblyman B. T. Collins, who Wilson backed in the June primary.

“I believe in God. B. T. believes in the governor,” Alby boasted during the campaign.

After her failed campaign, Alby appeared in a voter-registration video distributed to churches statewide.

The tape opens with footage of San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day parade and warns that “homosexuals can have an inordinate impact because they play inside of politics, they understand it and they turn their people out to vote.”

“The tragedy is that the people who could run this country, the God-fearing people, are not in politics as they should be. And if they were, this country would not be in trouble as it is today.”

Dignan defended his appointment of Alby. “I’ve known her for eight years,” he said. “She’s very competent and talented. She has impressive abilities, and she’s doing a fine job.”

Dignan said there may be some philosophical differences within the state Republican Party but that it is united in its efforts to get all Republican candidates elected this November.

But Assemblyman Collins said the Christian right is determined to take control of the state Republican Party, whose moderate wing has been slow to respond to the religious right movement and now faces the real possibility of being overrun in November.

“Either the Christian fundamentalists are going to win the party or the Wilson people are going to win the party,” Collins said.

Wilson was concerned enough about the party’s right wing that he boycotted the state Republican convention this year in an effort to divert media attention from the conclave and its battles between moderates and conservatives.

The religious right launched an aggressive political grass-roots effort in California and the nation after former television evangelist Robertson’s failed presidential campaign in 1988.

Taking up where the Moral Majority left off, Robertson immediately went to work forming the Christian Coalition to lead the charge of the religious right at the local and eventually state level--with emphasis in California, the country’s most populous and economically powerful state--through a built-in network of churches, newsletters and Christian radio and television stations.

Since it was formed in 1989, the coalition--officially nonpartisan--has raised more than $13 million nationwide to help elect fundamentalist Christian candidates. Robertson was a featured speaker in August at the Republican National Convention, which adopted much of the Christian right’s agenda in its party platform.

The coalition is recognized around the country as the leading organizing force for Christian activists, and its California executive director, Sara Hardman, has been appointed vice president of the state Republican party unit in charge of registering voters, raising money and campaigning at the grass-roots level.

In California, the religious right political cause has been picked up by other groups as well, including the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, the California Pro-Family Council and the Coalition on Revival.

Critics say that although they support the right of Christian right activists and candidates to engage in politics, they find some of their tactics to be anything but Christian.

They cite the movement’s attacks on those who support women’s rights to abortions as “baby killers,” as well as criticizing some religious right candidates for conducting smear campaigns against opponents.

“By their own acknowledgment, the religious right operates most effectively in the shadows,” the American Way report says. “For a movement that finds its roots in the church, the religious right’s message seems oddly harsh, and the movement’s messengers seem all too willing to resort to the low blow.”

The report criticizes religious right leaders for misleading the public when they say “they speak the Christian view, when in fact they represent only a narrow slice of the Christian community.”

Through their grass-roots efforts, religious right activists claim to control 34 to 36 of the 58 county Republican central committees in California. The committees raise money, endorse candidates and arrange for get-out-the-vote efforts.

In Santa Clara County, Jay Grimstead--whose Coalition on Revival is recognized nationally--ran a slate of candidates for the central committee in June. The slate won 10 spots out of 21.

In another Bay Area county, Grimstead said, religious right candidates won 17 of 25 central committee seats. “I’m not even going to mention the name of the county yet,” Grimstead said. “I’m waiting to see how long it takes before the liberals realize that this Bay Area central committee was captured by pro-life Christians.”

But the most impressive showing was in 1990 in Wilson’s own back yard--San Diego.

Christian activists captured 60 of 90 lower-level positions--mostly school board and city council seats--throughout San Diego County by conducting stealth or low-profile campaigns that downplayed their links to the religious right. Candidates restricted their leaflet efforts to church parking lots and contacted voters by using church directories.

“It’s not a question of stealth or deception,” Reed said in defense of the campaign strategy. “It’s a question of wisdom and savvy. There is a growing level of sophistication and maturity in the Christian community over how to play the hardball game of politics.

“The Moral Majority always used to hold news conferences to let the media know what it was doing. And it always got beat up,” Reed said. “We don’t do that.”

Reed said the coalition’s long-range goal is “to see Christians have a voice in government that is commensurate to their numbers in the electorate,” which he estimated at about 24 million nationwide.

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, head of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, likened the Christian conservative movement to a waking giant.

“They expected him to lay dead, mind his own business, sit in the back of the bus and shut up. Now he’s moved to the front of the bus. In some cases, he’s sitting in the driver’s seat and they (liberals) are paranoid.

“They’re paranoid about the fact that we don’t want abortion with taxpayers’ money and that homosexuality is not a viable alternative, and we don’t want it taught to our children in public schools. That we do not want the streets proliferated with pornographic news racks and adult bookstores on every corner. That we want to keep the state off the back of the church, and the fifth issue is parental rights.”

Another example of the religious right’s growing political strength is its ability to wage big money campaigns. Four wealthy businessmen aligned with fundamentalists together have pumped more than $1 million into the campaigns of right-wing candidates and causes in the first six months of 1992.

They are: Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson Jr., who contributed through Irvine-based Fieldstead & Co., a corporate name in which he performs philanthropy; Robert S. Hurtt, owner of Container Supply Co. of Garden Grove, which makes decorative tins and plastic containers; Roland and Lila Hinz, whose Daisy/Hi-Torque Publications in Mission Hills publishes dirt bike magazines, and Edward G. Atsinger III of Camarillo, who owns Salem Communications, a Christian radio network.

Less than half of their contributions went directly to candidates; the bulk of the money went to political action committees, which in turn passed it along to right wing candidates. The committees include Family PAC, Allied Business PAC, Citizens for Responsible Representation, California Pro-Life Council PAC, Pro-Life Council of Orange County and Free Market PAC.

Only one other interest group, the California Medical PAC, gave more to candidates--$757,079--during the first six months of 1992.

None of the four men would return phone calls, but Ahmanson’s wife said his religious convictions are the basis for his political activities and pro-business attitude. An employee of Hurtt’s downplayed Hurtt’s religious concerns and said that although the subject of religion does come up when the businessmen consider supporting candidates, their main concern is for the economy.

Reed of the Christian Coalition minimized the significance of the campaign contributions.

“Everybody has a right to get involved and put their money where they want,” he said. “I don’t think $1 million is a lot of money in California.”

But Steve Sheldon, son of the Rev. Sheldon and executive director of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, said Ahmanson and his friends have played a major role in furthering the religious right cause in California.

“Finances are very important to any movement, whether you’re campaigning for office or fighting muscular dystrophy,” he said.

Despite its growing strength in California, the religious right has suffered some setbacks this year.

In addition to losing the bitterly contested primary race against Collins in the 5th Assembly District in the Sacramento area, Christian activists also failed to capture the nomination in the 75th Assembly District primary, which covers northern San Diego County. Connie Youngkin, an Operation Rescue member who was jailed twice for protesting outside abortion clinics, lost by a few hundred votes to Poway Mayor Jan Goldsmith, another moderate backed by Wilson.

In Ventura County, Allen Guggenheim lost an expensive campaign to moderate Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi for the Republican nomination in the 37th Assembly District. Takasugi also was supported by Wilson.

Republican voters also removed a conservative Christian majority from the county’s Republican Central Committee, which had been taken over by a carefully orchestrated “sneak attack” in 1990.

“They were ousted once their platform was exposed,” said Bob Larkin, a moderate Central Committee member. “Ventura County is one of the first counties to swing the votes back to reasonable and responsible Republicans away from the Christian right.

“They turned off a lot of voters, and that turned off funds just like turning off a spigot,” he said. “We usually raise about $25,000 to $30,000. But this year we’re bankrupt.”

Larkin said that when new committee members take office in January, he is confident that the committee will be able to recoup its losses.

There also are signs that the various Christian right groups throughout the state are not entirely united.

Grimstead of the Coalition on Revival said the assorted factions act like a “bunch of guerrilla warfare, mini-armies. They do not work well together and this is my sadness.

“What we have is a disorganized (effort) trying to work together, and a lot of us have big egos,” he said. “We’re trying to move toward a D-Day effect with the united forces, but its going to be several years before we’re a threat to the liberals.”

Nonetheless, Reed predicts that the Christian right will continue to strengthen regardless of what happens in November. Reed said that after Robertson’s 1988 presidential loss and the scandals involving Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker, the national media declared the religious right dead.

“The public pundits wrote the premature obituary of the religious right,” he said. “Now they have found that we are very much a permanent part of the political infrastructure of America. And we aren’t going to go away.”

Times staff writer Eric Bailey in Orange County contributed to this story.

Religion and Politics Join Forces

HOW DID THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT GET INTO POLITICS?

The religious right launched an aggressive grass-roots political effort in California and the nation after former television evangelist Pat Robertson’s failed presidential campaign in 1988. Taking up where the Moral Majority left off, Robertson immediately went to work forming the Christian Coalition to organize the religious right at the local and state levels--with particular emphasis in California. This was done through a built-in network of churches, newsletters and Christian radio and television stations.

WHAT GAVE IMPETUS TO THEIR CAUSE?

U.S. Supreme Court decisions deeply disturbed Christian fundamentalists. These decisions included the court’s 1962 ruling that declared school prayer in the classroom unconstitutional, the 1969 declaration that prosecution for possession of obscene materials was unconstitutional and the court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

WHAT ARE THEIR POLITICAL GOALS?

Christian conservatives hope that the November elections will advance a moral agenda that would make abortions illegal, counter the gains of gay rights advocates and curb the sale of sex-oriented magazines and pornography. Their candidates also support the conservative causes of lowering taxes, downsizing government, repealing gun control laws and using state-issued vouchers to send children to private and parochial schools.

WHAT IS A FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCH?

Evangelical and fundamentalist churches see themselves as Bible-centered fellowships that adhere to the Christian gospel more directly than churches that are more Catholic or liberal in their faith and worship.

HOW MANY CHRISTIANS ARE EVANGELICAL OR FUNDAMENTALIST?

Statistics on the number of evangelical and fundamentalist churches in California are difficult to obtain. The National Assn. of Evangelicals said its membership nationwide includes 50,000 churches with 15 million members. Many of these 50,000 churches are associated with 77 Protestant denominations.

The Money Trail THE BUSINESSMEN

Four California businessmen contributed the following total donations to candidates, political action committees, the state Republican Party and initiatives from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30.

* Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson Jr., Fieldstead & Co.: $775,354

Ahmanson is the son of the founder of Home Savings and has been a donor to conservative Republican campaigns and evangelical Christian causes.

* Robert Hurtt Jr., Container Supply Co.: $542,547

Hurtt’s Orange County company makes decorative tins and buckets.

* Edward G. Atsinger III, Salem Communications: $93,625

Atsinger, of Camarillo, owns 18 Christian radio stations in California and around the country.

* Roland Hinz, Daisy/Hi-Torque Publications: $124,625

Hinz’s business, based in Mission Hills, publishes motocross and dirt bike magazines.

* Total: $1,536,151

Of this figure, slightly more than $1 million went to candidates, either directly or through political action committees and other groups. THE PACS

The businessmen gave the following contributions to these and other intermediaries, which then disbursed most of the funds to conservative Republican candidates.

* Allied Business PAC: $795,000.

The four businessmen have been the only contributors to this PAC, which has spent $550,000 on candidates so far.

* Family PAC: $85,290

* California Pro-Life Council: $73,489 (All from Ahmanson)

* Citizens for Responsible Representation: $60,000 (All from Ahmanson)

* College Republican PAC: $10,000 (All from Ahmanson)

* California Gun Owners Campaign Fund: $10,000 (All from Hurtt)

* Traditional Values Coalition: $2,200 THE CANDIDATES

The 12 conservative Republican Assembly candidates listed received a total of about $695,000 either directly from the four businessmen or through the PACs and organizations named above .

* District 10: Sacramento, San Joaquin. Republican Larry Bowler, who is running against Democrat Katherine L. Albiani. $71,528

* District 25: Fresno, Madera, Stanislaus, Tuolumne. Republican Barbara Keating-Edh, who is running against Democrat Margaret Snyder. $82,971

* District 34: Inyo, Kern, San Bernardino. Republican Kathleen Honeycutt, who is running against Democrat Joe Green. $25,420

* District 44: La Canada- Flintridge, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Sunland-Tujunga. Republican William E. Hoge, who is running against Democrat Jonathan S. Furhman. $61,311

* District 53: South Bay. Republican Redondo Beach Mayor W. Brad Parton, who is running against Democrat and attorney Debra Bowen. $103,500

* District 56: North Long Beach and Lakewood. Republican Phil Hawkins, who is opposed by incumbent Democrat Bob Epple. $25,377

* District 66: Riverside, San Diego. Republican Ray Haynes, who is running against Democrat Patsy Hockersmith. $40,800

* District 68: Orange County. Republican Curtis L. Pringle, who is running against Democrat Linda Kay Rigney. $35,140

* District 69: Central Orange County. Republican Jo Ellen Allen, versus incumbent Democrat Tom Umberg. $50,250

* District 73: Orange County, San Diego. Republican Bill Morrow, opposed by Democrat Lee Walker. $47,189

* District 76: North San Diego County. Republican Dick Daleke, versus incumbent Democrat Mike Gotch. $94,200

* District 77: San Diego County, El Cajon. Republican Steve Baldwin, who is running against Democrat Tom Connolly. $57,400

Sources: Secretary of state’s office and campaign finance statements

Research by Ralph Frammolino