PAC’s Clout Was Behind Setencich’s Defeat

If it weren’t for his uncle and his uncle’s friends, Republican upstart Robert Prenter would have had a grand total of $450 in his campaign to unseat former Assembly Speaker Brian Setencich.

But Prenter’s uncle happens to be Edward Atsinger, owner of the largest chain of Christian-format radio stations in the nation and a founding member of one of the most aggressive and effective political action committees in the state. Called the California Independent Business PAC, its origins are in Orange County, and it also played a role in the campaign of recently indicted Assemblyman Scott R. Baugh (R-Huntington Beach).

Last week, Prenter made headlines when he defeated Setencich, the only incumbent Assembly member to be defeated in Tuesday’s primary. And when the bills are totaled, Prenter’s successful campaign for the Fresno-area Assembly seat (the Democrats did not field a candidate) will have cost $200,000--with virtually all of it coming from his uncle’s political action committee.

More importantly, the infusion of money was sudden, coming in the last two weeks of the campaign--the equivalent of a political sneak attack. It caught Setencich by surprise.

By the time Setencich realized what was happening, it was too late. On Prenter’s behalf, Independent Business PAC consultants had produced commercials, bought prime television ad time and prepared mail attacks accusing Setencich of opposing the death penalty, selling out to Willie Brown and attacking Christians.

Ever since they burst onto the scene in 1992, the wealthy Christian donors who make up what then was called the Allied Business PAC have raised eyebrows. At the start, critics accused them of employing stealth in their effort to elect conservatives to the state Legislature.

More recently, the PAC has drawn the attention of Orange County prosecutors who are looking into irregularities in the recall last November of former Speaker Doris Allen and the election of her replacement, Assemblyman Baugh. The group helped fund Allen’s recall, and gave Baugh $10,000 for his election. Howard Ahmanson, another founding member of the PAC, gave Baugh $40,000.

Prosecutors believe that PAC donors were worried that Baugh might lose the election to replace Allen, because he was competing against several Republicans while there was only one Democrat on the ballot. So the committee pressured Republicans to recruit a second Democrat, prosecutors said.

While members of the PAC are not targets of the investigation, a county grand jury has indicted Baugh and two campaign workers in connection with the electioneering. Three more Republican activists have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.

The PAC’s director and Atsinger did not return phone calls seeking their comments. In the past, however, they have said their goal is to elect strongly pro-business lawmakers who are also social conservatives.

As the Orange County investigation proceeds, the California Independent Business PAC continues on its course, dumping large sums into campaigns with the goal of giving conservatives control of the Legislature. In the March primary, at least seven Republicans, including Prenter, won nominations with financial help from the political action committee.

“They’re the most powerful PAC among Republicans today,” said GOP political consultant Allen Hoffenblum. “They don’t win all their races. But when they get behind someone, they get massively behind the candidate.”

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The political action committee doled out at least $250,000 in the first three months of the year to Republicans, and nearly $300,000 in 1995. Since 1992, the group has given more than $2.5 million to state and local campaigns in California.

“They continue to be an extremely powerful force in determining the election of a particular type of Republican candidate,” said Ruth Holton of California Common Cause, which tracks the group’s spending. “They are very influential in shaping the character of the Assembly Republican caucus.”

In last week’s primary, the committee’s successful candidates for Republican nominations included:

* Lynne Leach, seeking a Contra Costa County Assembly seat, who received almost $38,000 in loans and donations.

* George Runner, running for an Antelope Valley Assembly seat, who took $28,000 in loans and donations.

* Thomas “Rico” Oller, for an El Dorado County Assembly seat, who took $11,630.

* Richard Lambros, seeking a Long Beach-Downey seat, who received $10,000.

* Tom McClintock, running for a San Fernando Valley Assembly seat, who took $4,750.

* Roy Ashburn, seeking a Bakersfield-area Assembly seat, who received $2,500.

The losing candidates included Peter Musurlian, who took $21,875 in his effort to win a Glendale-area Assembly seat, and Verne Lauritzen, who received $20,000 in his attempt to capture a Riverside-area Assembly seat.

Members of the committee also give on their own. Atsinger, for example, loaned $25,000 earlier this month to Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) for her successful state Senate primary race.

Legislators who have been elected with the PAC’s money now give to many of the same candidates backed by the California Independent Business PAC. Sen. Ray Haynes (R-Riverside), for example, gave at least $10,000 to Lauritzen. In his winning 1992 Assembly race, Haynes received $30,500 from the Allied Business PAC, and in his 1994 Senate race, he received $166,000.

Senate Republican Leader Rob Hurtt, a founding member of the committee who since has left, also gives to many of the same candidates, and still offers advice to the group, which is based in Pasadena. Since 1993, Hurtt has spent more than $2.3 million on political campaigns.

In this campaign, Hurtt broke from his tradition of giving solely to GOP candidates. This year, he donated $50,000 to Democratic Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. of Inglewood in Tucker’s failed effort to unseat Sen. Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood).

Hurtt gave $40,000 to Tucker through one of his corporations in early March, and a second $10,000 check through another Hurtt-owned corporation. That final donation did not become public until election day. Hurtt hoped that if Tucker won, he might have helped Hurtt achieve his goal of becoming Senate president pro tem.

Nowhere was the group’s impact more apparent than in the Central Valley Assembly race between the political unknown Prenter and Setencich. Setencich had angered Republican Party leaders by bucking GOP Assembly members and using Democratic votes to become speaker last year.

In an interview, Prenter said that at Thanksgiving dinner with the family in Ventura County, he and Atsinger--his mother’s brother--talked about then-Assembly Democratic Leader Willie Brown, Allen and Setencich, who was Assembly speaker at the time.

“The discussion was, ‘Here Willie Brown did it again.’ That was the focus of the conversation,” Prenter said, adding that the discussion was brief. “[Atsinger] thought Setencich betrayed his party and the people who got him elected.”

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At that gathering, Prenter said, he never raised the possibility that he might challenge Setencich. But after thinking about it, Prenter decided to move into the district from his home in Visalia. He announced his candidacy and called Atsinger for financial help. Atsinger, he said, was surprised, and promised to get back to Prenter.

“I knew he was involved in fund-raising, but I didn’t realize the extent,” Prenter said.

Prenter, meanwhile, loaned his campaign $300, received $100 from another family member and $50 from one other donor, then waited for his uncle to get back to him.

The group quietly went about its work, doing a background check on Prenter and taking surveys of the district, Prenter said. In the end, they concluded that Setencich could be beaten in the primary, since likely Republican voters in the district were especially conservative, he said.

Even insiders were caught by surprise. None thought Prenter was a serious threat to Setencich. But political experts quickly changed their assessment when Prenter publicly filed a campaign finance report two weeks before the election showing that the Independent Business PAC had pumped up his campaign with $145,000. In the final days, the group funneled more money to Prenter.

“It very was well planned,” Hoffenblum said.

The sudden attacks challenging Setencich on the death penalty and for allegedly being anti-Christian struck a chord. With a mere 13% of the district’s voters casting ballots, Prenter ended up winning with 9,248 votes to Setencich’s 8,708.

“You just don’t have enough time to [react]--that’s their M.O.,” Setencich said. “The campaign was completely vile. You have to keep defending yourself. That was the strategy.”

Unless Setencich or Democrats mount a successful write-in campaign, Prenter will be the next assemblyman from the 30th Assembly District.

“Brian truly believed he was sent up here to do what he thought was right, even if his party disagreed with him,” said Assembly Democratic Leader Richard Katz. “He has now paid the price for that.”