State Lawmaker Emerging as Darling of Right Wing

As his first legislative resolution this year, state Sen. Don Rogers introduced a measure seeking safeguards against a global government takeover by the United Nations.

Soon thereafter, Rogers authored an amendment to add the right to bear arms to the state Constitution, and a bill declaring California’s sovereignty in the face of federal mandates.

That Rogers, a 17-year state lawmaker who represents portions of northern Los Angeles County, would weave the agendas of the militia and patriots’ movement into his 1995-96 legislative wish list is no fluke. In the past year, the conservative Republican, whose fierce independent spirit reflects that of his vast, 32,000-square-mile district, has emerged as a darling of the fast-spreading right-wing movement.

“Any senator who has the guts to go out and do what’s right like that, we support,” said Dean Compton of the National Alliance of Christian Militia, who hailed Rogers for his legislation targeting the specter of a “New World Order.”

This week, in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, Rogers was singled out as one of two state legislators nationwide who are lending credibility to underground militia movements throughout the country.

“One of the most troubling aspects of what we are seeing in the militia movement is the legitimization that they are receiving from mainstream politicians,” Loretta Ross of the Center for Democratic Renewal, a hate crime research organization, said at an Atlanta press conference.

Rogers’ ties with the patriot movement, and its armed militia splinter factions, are well known beyond state lines, according to other national experts who track right-wing organizations.

Rogers is a headliner on the movement’s lecture circuit and his name is displayed on flyers circulated by patriot and militia organizations. From Bakersfield to Atlanta, Rogers has appeared at gatherings where hard-core hate literature is disseminated and where he has shared podiums with such notorious reactionaries as Louis Beam, a former Ku Klux Klansman.

“Don Rogers is one of a handful of state legislators around the country who are regarded as having one foot in the militia movement and an open attitude toward people involved in racist tendencies,” said Chip Berlet, an analyst at Political Research Associates in Cambridge, Mass. “He has a national reputation among people watching the growth of right-wing political movements in the U. S.”

Researchers identify Colorado’s state Sen. Charles Duke as the other state officeholder prominently making the rounds to address patriot groups. But even Duke backed out of the August, 1994, Bakersfield gathering where Beam appeared, while Rogers went forward with plans to address the event.

Although Rogers said at the time that he did not share in any racist beliefs and regarded his audience as “patriotic Americans,” his appearance sparked barbed criticism by the Legislature’s black and Latino caucuses.

This week, as lawmakers expressed alarm over the Oklahoma City bombing, Rogers also did so--but quickly followed with a defense of militias as clusters of well-intentioned Americans “out to re-establish their constitutional rights.”

Rogers declined comment for this article. But in an interview with a Northern California News Satellite reporter, he said: “The movement that I see growing really is a group of people who are patriotic and want to exercise their right to preserve and protect the Constitution. What’s wrong with that?”

Asked if the increasingly militaristic activities of the militias were cause for concern, Rogers said he had no quibble with civilians spending their weekends in camouflaged fatigues, taking up arms and practicing defensive military drills.

“Here again, as long as they don’t break the law and don’t do anything that would be considered out of line. . . . What are they doing that’s wrong?” Rogers said.

His perspective stunned some of his colleagues in the California Legislature who are uneasy with an anti-government movement that authorities believe was an inspiration to suspected bomber Timothy J. McVeigh.

“It’s very dangerous to try to justify and sugarcoat what these militias do,” said state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles). “If the senator or anyone believes in those principles, then they ought not to serve. They ought to resign from office.”

But Rogers said he admonishes his audiences to exercise restraint. “I always tell them this: ‘Don’t go outside the law. Don’t resort to any violence. Just work within the system’--that’s the message that I give people.”

And Rogers offers perhaps the best avenue into California’s system of state government, a path that many militia leaders say they favor over more drastic measures.

Outsiders at best in Capitol circles, these unlikely lobbying forces benefit from Rogers’ seniority, his willingness to hear evidence of federal or global conspiracies and his zealous conservatism.

Mike Howse, unit commander of the Unorganized Militia of California in Fort Bragg, invoked Rogers’ name in a letter to solicit petition signatures for a “Demand for Immediate Disarmament; Removal; and Debarment of all Foreign Troops from U. S. Soil.”

“We have been in touch with Senator Don Rogers, who will take the ball and roll with it if, and only if, we are able to collect enough signatures,” Howse wrote in a letter addressed to “fellow patriots.”

The result, Howse figures, was Senate Joint Resolution No. 1. That resolution warned against a global takeover of the United States, which Rogers wasted no time in submitting on the morning of Dec. 5, the first day of the new legislative session.

“SJR 1--we believe--was in response to the petitions and the groundswell of support,” Howse said in a phone interview, “even though Sen. Rogers hasn’t personally said that.”

Upon meeting with Rogers last fall, Howse said, the group got a sense of where Rogers’ boundaries were on the subject. “He did have a little problem with the petition’s statement that ‘We the People, are armed and ready . . .’ He thought that was too strong of a statement.”

Rogers’ resolution is a replay of a measure he sought last year but failed to get passed. It urges Washington not to join in or help fund a global government takeover by the United Nations--or New World Order, as it is known in militia circles.

How absurd, colleagues such as Polanco say.

“There is no basis in fact of a threat of a takeover by the United Nations,” Polanco said. “This measure is just a perpetuation of paranoia in individuals interested in creating a lot of disturbances in this country.”

Not so, say the patriot movement researchers sharing information with Rogers. They say they have unearthed a growing body of evidence that points, at the very least, to an erosion of constitutional rights and, at most, to signs of an eminent invasion of international forces.

Rod Myers of the Kirkland Foundation, a patriot organization in Palmdale, said his paralegals help research constitutional principles for Rogers and track legislation in other states.

Myers said the local militias he is aware of in Rogers’ district are peaceful. “Their big concern is . . . with other troops coming in from foreign nations, or the United Nations.”

Another “constitutionalist” who has met with Rogers is Dr. Gene Schroder, a Colorado veterinarian who prefaces a description of his research findings by cautioning: “What we found may seem rather crazy, but . . . “

Schroder contends that since the days of the Great Depression, the federal government has repeatedly exceeded its constitutional authority. U. S. Presidents have been using an emergency war powers act enacted March 6, 1933, he said, that mysteriously was never rescinded even though the national crisis of the Depression had faded away.

“That’s what Don (Rogers) is talking about addressing--getting us back to the point where the only powers the federal government has are what we give it under the Constitution,” Schroder said.

Last year, Rogers successfully carried a resolution underscoring the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees certain states’ rights, with the intent of warning Washington against overstepping its powers in forcing mandates upon the states.

As arcane as this seems, the theme plays well in the vast territory of the 17th Senate District, which stretches from the suburban boom town of Santa Clarita to remote desert and agricultural lands in Inyo, San Bernardino and Kern counties.

In fact, when Rogers’ petroleum business incurred a financial setback, he battled the Internal Revenue Service over back taxes, turning it into a political plus.

Constituents view Rogers, a former Marine, as a man who stood up to the federal government as well as a proven advocate for local industry, veterans and farmers squaring off against environmental protections.

“I think the political instruction one gets out here is that people expect government to be a servant instead of a master,” said former state Sen. Phil Wyman, who is seeking Roger’s seat in next year’s election when term limits will force him out of office.

Wyman said that while campaigning in the Central Valley he sometimes ran across--but tried to avoid--fanatical militia enthusiasts. He said, however, that he will not pass judgment on Rogers.

“Don Rogers is a highly respected conservative leader who has felt he needs to share his view with a lot of different groups--including some controversial ones,” he said. “I sometimes wonder if that doesn’t taint him unfairly.”

Perhaps, but it certainly colors the views of some state legislators who are ideologically opposed to Rogers.

“I think it’s very dangerous for any elected official to give aid and comfort to extremist, militia-type right-wing groups,” Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) said.

“It makes them feel legitimate because an elected official who represents 750,000 people appears to be saying it’s not only OK, but important to California.”