Militias Have Forged Ties to Some Members of Congress : Capitol Hill: Anti-government groups are an important political force in some areas--and are treated as such.

Although loathing of the federal government is a hallmark of conservative militias around the country, the groups are willing to deal with a few members of Congress.

Militia members have campaigned for congressional candidates, showed up at town hall meetings, testified at hearings and flooded congressional offices with faxes on their pet issues.

Most members of Congress dismiss them as a fringe element, but some lawmakers have treated the movement like an important political force. Some have met with militia leaders, pressed their cause with the executive branch and appeared on their radio talk shows. And the top issues on the militias’ agenda--opposition to gun control, protection of property rights and criticism of federal law enforcement agencies--have found some sympathetic ears in the GOP-dominated Congress.

In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, which investigators have linked to parts of the militia movement, lawmakers are skittish about associating with the paramilitary element. But at least one House Republican has risen to the defense of his state’s militias.

“Every one of those (militia) members are telling me as I speak to them: ‘This Oklahoma City bombing is something we abhor. It’s not what we’re about,’ ” freshman Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.) said Wednesday in an interview on a Nashville shortwave radio talk show. The militias “consist of groups of people who are not interested in violence.”

The militia or “patriot” movement has gained new prominence because of some evidence that the prime suspect in the Oklahoma case had attended militia meetings and that he shared the militias’ anti-government, pro-gun views.

Militia groups’ contacts with Congress began to come to light recently when it was revealed that Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.) received a fax about the Oklahoma City bombing on the morning of the explosion from Libby Molley, an associate of Mark Koernke, a militia member in Michigan whose anti-government views are broadcast over shortwave radio.

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“Mark and . . . I have the utmost respect for Congressman Stockman,” said Molley, who was once Republican Party chairman in a county next to Stockman’s district, in an April 25 interview on KLVI radio in Beaumont, Tex. “He has been mentioned several times on our broadcast. He will continue to be mentioned for all of the positive things that he has been doing.”

Stockman said he has no connection with the militias. However, in late March, he took up their cause when he wrote to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno expressing concern about rumors that federal agents were getting military training in preparation for an impending raid on citizens’ militias. He was not the only lawmaker to do so. Justice Department spokesman John Russell said the department received similar inquiries about the same time, including letters from seven other members of Congress and calls from many other congressional offices.

Although most of the inquiries came from conservative Republicans, including Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), at least one was a Democrat, Rep. Karen L. Thurman of Florida, who asked the Justice Department to respond to a constituent’s letter asking, among other things, about a report that the government had rented office space in Dallas to “take out the militia.”

In response, Justice Department spokesman Carl Stern wrote: “It is a sad commentary on contemporary political life that hardly a day goes by without another hoax or fabrication being brought to our attention.”

Steven Cohen, Thurman’s press secretary, said the correspondence was just a routine inquiry in keeping with the lawmaker’s policy of passing on all constituent queries. “No matter what someone writes about, we have an obligation to satisfy whatever concerns they raise,” Cohen said. “We don’t make a value judgment as to what is reasonable and what is far-fetched.”

In addition to Dornan, Stockman and Thurman, Russell said, others sending letters to the Justice Department included Sens. Larry E. Craig (R-Ida.), Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.) and Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and Reps. Mac Collins (R-Ga.) and James V. Hansen (R-Utah). Spokesmen for Craig and Faircloth pointed out that their joint letter referred only to concerns about military training, without reference to a raid on militias. Spokesmen for the other lawmakers said that they, like Thurman, were simply passing on queries from constituents.

Militia groups are a potent political force in some congressional districts. Sam Sherwood, a militia leader in Idaho who heads the U.S. Militia Assn., said his group turned out 1,000 volunteers to work in the campaign of Helen Chenoweth (R-Ida.), who was first elected to the House in 1994. He has not been disappointed with the results. Chenoweth called a hearing on the “excessive use of government force” on March 17 in Boise, where Sherwood testified and other militia members attended.

Sherwood said he had a private conversation with Chenoweth afterward--a claim that Chenoweth’s press secretary, Khris Bershers, could not confirm or deny.

After the House returns next week from its recess, Bershers said, Chenoweth will introduce legislation that would require federal agents to get written permission from state or local officials before they could engage in law enforcement activities. Bershers acknowledged that militia members worked on Chenoweth’s campaign but said that none were on her campaign staff.

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Chenoweth’s aggressive criticism of federal law enforcement agencies may please some constituents like Sherwood, but it has drawn fire from others. In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, a local newspaper suggested that Chenoweth’s rhetoric was encouraging anti-government “fringe groups.”

“Whether she realizes it or not, Chenoweth is quickly becoming the poster child for such groups,” said the Idaho Statesman in an April 25 editorial. Chenoweth fired off an angry response to the editorial, which she called “reckless and inflammatory.”

“It is outrageous, grotesque and incredibly cynical to suggest that participation in a legitimate discussion on the proper role of federal law enforcement is to blame for this kind of wanton crime,” she wrote.

Members of Sherwood’s militia group, which he says has members in 35 states, also worked as volunteers in the campaign of another freshman, Rep. Linda Smith (R-Wash.), according to Sherwood. The militia is enough of a political presence in her district that Smith agreed to meet with the state militia commander and other local militia leaders because they were unhappy with a vote she had cast in support of a bill that would allow prosecutors to use certain improperly obtained evidence.

She has been asked about the issue by militia members in at least three town hall meetings during the three-week House recess, according to Stephen Daniels-Brown, Smith’s communications director.

“They are a vocal group,” said Daniels-Brown. “They had been pelting her in the community.”

Even some of the most virulently anti-government militias have tried to communicate with members of Congress that they regard as sympathetic. Bob Fletcher, spokesman for the Militia of Montana, wrote a letter to Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) in September that began: “You may be one of the few that still deserves the title honorable.”

The Militia of Montana also routinely faxes information to the office of Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), said Harold Stavenas, Hunter’s press secretary. Stavenas said that about once or twice a week for several months now, the militia has sent Hunter what purports to be transmissions that they said had been intercepted in communications among federal agents. “We generally throw them away,” Stavenas said.

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Some Democrats said Republicans’ links may be used as a campaign tool to portray them as extremists who are out of touch with the mainstream. Ed Martin, executive director of the Texas State Democratic Party, said the letter Stockman wrote to Reno about the raid on militias would surely be used against him in the 1996 campaign.

“That letter really raises a question,” Martin said. “Who is he representing, law-abiding citizens of the district or these far-out extremist conspiracy theorists?”

Chenoweth’s association with the militias may also become a campaign issue. “Any candidate running against her in 1996 is going to make an attempt to hit at that,” said Donald Crawley, chairman of the political science department at the University of Idaho.

But Crawley raised questions about how much of a political liability that issue would be in a state as conservative and opposed to gun control as Idaho. He noted that Chenoweth was elected with more than 55% of the vote in 1994, despite a determined effort by her opponent to portray her as a right-wing extremist.

“It’s tricky,” Crawley said. “There will be people who find many of the things she said to be appealing.”