Decision ’92 : SPECIAL VOTERS’ GUIDE TO STATE AND LOCAL ELECTIONS : VOTER BEWARE

Two-time Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson once said: “The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal...is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.”

Well, Stevenson lost twice and has been dead and buried for 27 years. Meanwhile, the merchandising of politicians continues unabated, with its refinement into a science--albeit a slippery one.

To help cope with the chicanery, or, as fight promoter Don King might put it, the trickeration foisted upon the public by high-paid, low-thinking campaign consultants, The Times offers a compendium of campaign sleight of hand.

“OFFICIAL” CAMPAIGN LITERATURE

Many voters tend to regard campaign mailers for what they frequently are: distorted, one-sided appeals pandering to the basest of instincts. As a result, four to five campaign letters are tossed into the circular file for each one that is actually opened, consultants say.

Consequently, between now and November 3, scores of candidates will be flooding mailboxes across California with colorful, enticing literature that voters may think they cannot afford to throw out before perusing.

Example

Last spring, thousands of Los Angeles voters received a mailer that came in the same size, shape and type-face as the Official Sample Ballot each voter receives from the county clerk’s office. On second glance, the mailer turned out to be an elaborate mockup of the official ballot, containing Rep. Maxine Waters’ (D-LA) endorsements for a wide range of elected offices. (see above)

How to Cope

Cast a wary eye on envelopes that read: “Dated Material - Open Immediately,” “Urgent Message,” “Election Notice,” ’Mailogram,” “Official Document Enclosed,” or “Western Union Urgent Transmittal! Open Immediately.”

* Remember that very few pieces of literature received during a campaign are truly official and impartial. These are the Official Sample Ballot pamphlet mailed by the county clerk’s office and similar pamphlets from the Secretary of State and local municipalities that provide the text of initiatives that will appear on the November ballot.

* When a warning is included on the envelope of a political mailer stating that it is a federal crime to tamper with the mail, rest assured that the message is true of all mail.

SLATE MAILERS

When a last-minute mailer says “Vote Democratic!” and is festooned with drawings of JFK, FDR and a donkey, one might assume the endorsements contained therein have some connection to the Democratic Party. Similarly, one might think that the Republican Party has a hand in slate mailers featuring drawings of Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and an elephant.

Not necessarily so.

The bottom line of those ubiquitous endorsement mailers that arrive shortly before Election Day is profit -- gobs of it. Consultants who put together these slate mailers often charge candidates $100,000 or more to be included.

Why would candidates pay such steep sums? For one thing, to confuse voters. The most common example is the endorsement of a Republican on an ostensibly Democratic mailer -- and vice versa.

Example

Four days before the 1990 election, Republican state attorney general candidate Dan Lungren held a press conference to blast Democratic foe Arlo Smith because Smith’s name appeared on a mailer distributed by an organization named the Republican Vote By Mail Project. One day later, Lungren’s name showed up on another mass mailer for which he paid a fee to be included. The mailer was titled: “Attention Democrats: Election Day Voting Guide.” Lungren eventually won the race for the state’s top law enforcement post by a margin of less than 0.41%.

How to Cope

* Don’t conclude that a mailer issued by a firm with the name “Democrat” in it endorses Democratic candidates only. The same goes for mailers with the word Republican. The part y affiliation of every candidate is listed on the official ballot.

* Determine which candidates have paid for the privilege of being endorsed on a mailer. This information is customarily denoted by an asterisk linked to an explanation in small print. Unfortunately, the explanations themselves are often intentionally confusing. On the June primary Democratic Voter Guide, the disclaimer stated: “Not paid for or authorized by candidates and ballot measures not marked by an *.” In English, that means that candidates with asterisks next to their name paid to be endorsed in the mailer.

LAST-MINUTE HITS

Consultants sometimes joke that in the final week before an election, “the truth becomes irrelevant.” The reason last-minute attacks can be so effective is that they do not afford an opponent an adequate opportunity to rebut a false or slanted charge. Such attacks may also draw attention away from the more important issues of the campaign. Thus anything heard in the last week of a race should be weighed with particular caution.

The vehicles for last-minute distortions may include television and radio ads, campaign appearances and literature distributed by mail.

Some campaigns may also direct their phone banks to engage in phony polling, a practice in which disturbing information about opponents is spread under the guise of a neutral public opinion survey.

“Sometimes they spread this horrible rumor over the phone wires,” says San Francisco political consultant Sam Singer, “and you don’t even hear about it until you get a call from someone. . . . It can be ugly.”

Example

In a Los Angeles County supervisorial race last year, state Sen. Charles Calderon distributed a last-minute mailer declaring that one of his three opponents, state Sen. Art Torres, had been arrested twice for drunk driving. Calderon’s name appeared only in small print on the envelope. Torres, in fact, had been open about his brushes with the law--stating when he declared his candidacy that he had confronted his mistakes by completing an alcohol treatment program and not drinking since pleading no contest to the second violation.

The eventual winner of the race, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Gloria Molina, purchased $15,000 in stamps and placed a printer on standby to issue a last-minute attack mailer in case she was attacked first.

Days before a runoff election between Torres and Molina, Torres distributed a mailer featuring unflattering photos of Molina and accusing her of “fraud” in her stance on crime, taxes and the environment.

How to Cope

* View all campaign claims warily and consider whether last-minute promises have any reasonable chance of being fulfilled.

* Don’t be taken in by pictures that distort or appeal to subconscious prejudices. As one leading political scientist, Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania, puts it in her book, “Dirty Politics”: “What is shown is not necessarily what is seen, and what is said is not necessarily what is heard.”

* Don’t assume that the direct mail you receive from a candidate is the same that goes to all residents in your neighborhood. Using computer data banks, consultants can target specific voters by age, sex, political affiliation, housing type and, to some degree, job, ethnic background and sexual orientation. The practice is innocuous when it comes to a candidate mailing Mother’s Day cards to older women in a district, but it can become more cynical when a candidate sends different messages to single-family homeowners and renters.

BALLOT MEASURE ARGUMENTS

Since ballot measures are long, complicated and difficult to understand, campaigns often have a field day confusing voters about the implications of a “yes” or “no” vote.

One tactic is to run ads that focus on a single--sometimes obscure--element of an initiative that would have a range of major effects. Another is to obscure the true interest of groups backing a proposal by masking their identity behind a vague but harmless title.

Example

In 1990 a group with the generic name Taxpayers for Common Sense paid a slate mailer firm $750,000 to recommend a “no” vote on the ballot measure to impose a nickel-a-drink tax on alcoholic beverages served at bars and restaurants. The name did not reflect it, but the group was funded largely by the alcoholic beverage industry.

How to Cope

* Study the full implications of a ballot measure. Don’t be taken in by costly ad campaigns that focus on just one of several elements.

* Pay careful attention to the arguments and counterarguments contained in official ballot pamphlets. Take note of the officials and organizations signing the arguments.

* Don’t be fooled by the seemingly innocuous names of special interest groups supporting certain initiatives. “The more obscure sounding the committee,” warned Los Angeles consultant Allen Hoffenblum, “the more leery a voter should be of who is behind it.”