ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : Strategy Smacks of Tactics Used by the Christian Right : Voters picking trustees in Capistrano Unified School District must decide whether four candidates have conducted a ‘stealth campaign.’

Conspiracy or coincidence? That’s the question facing voters in the Capistrano Unified School District on Nov. 3 as they go to the polls to elect four CUSD school board members.

The campaign tactics of candidates Steve Caulkins, Dustin Etheredge, Don Richardson and J. Michael Sedillo bear a striking similarity to the “stealth campaign” conducted by conservative Christian activists in San Diego County in 1990 when 16 fundamental Christians won seats on 28 school boards using the “San Diego model” strategy. As reported by Times staff writer Barry M. Horstman (“Christian Activists Use ‘Stealth’ Tactics” April 5, 1992), this deceitful strategy employs local fundamentalist Christian support and a disguised agenda to slip through the back door of the democratic process.

In San Diego County, fundamentalist Christian candidates campaigned quietly through the local church network. On the Sunday preceding the election, church parking lots were covered with campaign literature that encouraged fellow Christians to “cast your ballot for a pro-life, pro-family future,” and listing candidates that would “ . . . Espouse strong, traditional family values and oppose the senseless killing of innocent, unborn children. . . .” On Sunday, Oct. 11, many church parking lots in San Clemente were blanketed with flyers that used the same language and endorsed candidates Caulkins, Etheredge, Richardson and Sedillo for the CUSD school board.

In San Diego County, some fundamentalist Christian candidates did not feel it was a campaign responsibility to attend public forums. The Orange County sample ballot reveals that Etheredge, Richardson and Sedillo have not bothered to file a statement. Since July, school board President Crystal Kochendorfer has been inviting candidates to introduce themselves at the monthly board meetings. None of the four candidates has bothered to do so. Lois Anderson, Capistrano Unified Educators Assn. president, reports that all four were invited to meet with the association’s endorsement committee and not one chose to attend.

Other fundamentalist Christian candidates in San Diego County downplayed the intensity of their Christian faith when speaking to non-church groups or individuals. A phone conversation with Richardson, who teaches in a high school in Tustin, revealed that he was running for the Capistrano school board because the “board needed a teacher’s point of view.” There was no mention of his Christian faith even though he described himself “as a man who loves the Lord” in the Tustin High School yearbook. He also did not think it was a problem that his 6-year-old daughter attends a private Christian school while he aspires to a public school board seat.

Voters deserve a full explanation on several other important issues. Sedillo, in a letter to the Orange County Register published Aug. 28, states “ . . . The words separation , church , and state are not even found in the First Amendment.” Does Sedillo join with other extreme factions of the religious right in disagreeing with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the establishment clause in the First Amendment? If so, what are the implications for our local schools if a school board member does not believe in a strict separation between church and state?

In a campaign flyer Etheredge supports “parental choice of schools with vouchers.” How does he justify the use of vouchers to decrease funding for the very school system he hopes to guide?

Campaign literature supporting Caulkins states that “we must pursue elements of foundational education, not social and political affective learning.” Exactly what social and political programs does he disagree with? Does he plan to replace them with programs that reflect his personal philosophy or with programs that address the needs of the students?

In the Los Angeles Times article “Christian Right Tries to Take Over State GOP” (Oct. 18), staff writers Carlos Lozano and Ralph Frammolino detail the extensive and well-financed political campaign that the Christian right is conducting in California this fall. Are candidates Caulkins, Etheredge, Richardson and Sedillo part of the Christian right conspiracy or are their similar tactics just a coincidence? Voters, protect yourself, our children and the future of our schools with facts before casting your vote on Nov. 3.