Roberti Attacks Recall Drive’s Raffle of Guns

A raffle--featuring firearms as prizes--to help finance the campaign to recall state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) was attacked Thursday by the embattled senator as fresh evidence that his foes are gun zealots.

Additionally, the legality of the raffle--or “donation drawing,” as supporters have termed it--is being questioned by Roberti, who faces an April 12 recall election.

In a letter, Roberti has asked Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti to determine if the fund-raising effort, sponsored by Californians Against Corruption, a Signal Hill-based group, complies with state laws regulating raffles and the transfer of firearms between parties.

Meanwhile, the raffle created a new public relations problem for recall organizers as they try to portray themselves as good government reformers and not, as Roberti has contended, gun fanatics seeking retribution because the senator authored a 1989 assault-weapons ban.

“The problem is that the anti-tax and victims rights groups are part of the recall movement, but they don’t give money,” said recall leader Russ Howard. “These guys (in the Second Amendment rights groups) will mortgage their houses to get Roberti.

“The fact is that if you want to oust David Roberti you’re insane not to hit up the Second Amendment rights people,” Howard said. “And if you do, you have to offer them something they like (as prizes).”

Recall leaders acknowledge that opposition to Roberti’s gun control position motivates many of their supporters but say that others are equally angry at Roberti as a soft-on-crime, big government liberal who has ruled the state Senate during a period of unprecedented corruption and does not even live in the district.

The recall appeared to gain a new level of legitimacy when it was endorsed unanimously last weekend by delegates to the state Republican Party convention. That boost came after a setback suffered when it was reported that 15 weapons had been stolen from the home of recall movement leader William Dominguez.

But news of the raffle has put recall leaders on the defensive again. “Yeah, it came at a bad time,” said Howard, a Palos Verdes Estates financial consultant. “We should have seen this coming.”

A flyer advertising the raffle has gone to several thousand CAC supporters in the past 10 days and fell into the hands of Roberti, who released it to the media.

Howard said he had no firm estimate of how much money the raffle has raised so far. “It could be as much as $10,000,” he said.

The drawing for the winning tickets is to be held March 15. “You can help dump Senator David Roberti and have fun winning while he loses!” the flyer states.

The total value of the prizes--all donated--runs about $4,000, Howard said. Donors include firearm manufacturers such as Calico, a Bakersfield-based gun maker; Turner’s Outdoorsman, a sporting goods chain; and a central California outfitter who donated a one-day wild pig hunting excursion.

Among the top prizes is a Calico M951 Carbine, a legal semiautomatic assault rifle. The Calico M950, a virtual twin of the M951, was one of the weapons singled out under the ban that Roberti helped write. However, the outlawed weapon was slightly altered by its manufacturer, renamed and put back on the market again legally as the M951.

Also offered as prizes are six pocket-sized Derringer pistols, a 9-millimeter pistol, a bullet reloader and subscriptions to Soldier of Fortune, and Guns and Ammo magazines.

The flyer identifies CAC as a “citizens watchdog group” that “fights financial corruption such as bribes, and political corruption such as lying, promoting election fraud or supporting laws that violate our civil rights.