Wishing Upon a Star : Candidates Get Help From Celebrities Who Put Their Names, Money Behind Favorite Causes

OJAI — Larry and Maj Hagman opened the gates of “Heaven,” as they call their mountaintop mansion, and 130 mortals ventured in, each bearing a $100 gift.

The contributors came ostensibly to support Kathy Long, a candidate for county supervisor. But they also wanted to rub elbows with a television star and get a first-hand look at the lifestyle of the rich and famous.

They weren’t disappointed, as the man who played J.R. Ewing mixed gregariously with his guests and let them snoop about his house.

Long was satisfied, too. She raked in more than $12,000, the biggest fund-raiser of her campaign.

“All politics is local,” the late House Speaker Tip O’Neill loved to say. And celebrities living in Ventura County have begun to embrace that notion, for reasons of public spirit or private interest.

“I find when you are in national politics, it is so slow and so expensive, you have to wait forever,” Larry Hagman said at the recent house party. “In my life, I don’t have that long anymore. I want to see things move. And, you can do that in local politics.”

Hagman--who has been slowed by a liver transplant last year--had tremendous success joining other Ojai celebrities to stop nearby Weldon Canyon from becoming a trash dump.

Now, the stars have targeted a National Weather Service radar tower, which they say despoils their view and peppers them with pulses of low-level radiation. Their campaign includes courting sympathetic politicians such as Long.

In the upcoming fall election, Ventura County is poised to have its first celebrity candidate. Comedian Shelley Berman is running for a seat on the Bell Canyon Community Services District’s board of directors.

The 71-year-old stand-up comic jokes about the awesome political power he would amass on the board of directors. The board’s primary duty: contracting trash pickup for the 570 homes in the tiny east Ventura County community.

When the jokes subside, he confesses a more altruistic reason. “It always sounds hollow, but I really would like to work for the community.”

For the most part, local celebrities seem satisfied with lending their names, their cash and their time to assist political causes or eager politicians.

Candidates in the county’s hottest congressional race are engaged in a type of star wars to boost their chances for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills).

Republican Rich Sybert brought in entertainer-turned-congressman Sonny Bono to help him raise nearly $75,000 at an event earlier this year. Tom Selleck and Charlton Heston aided Sybert during his ill-fated congressional bid in 1994, and his campaign manager hopes to tap their talent again.

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Not to be outdone, the Democrats have lined up a former Charlie’s Angel to help raise political cash for Democratic candidate Brad Sherman. Actress Shelley Hack spoke at a West Valley Democratic Club dinner Aug. 4. .

Sherman’s staff also is trying to line up Martin Sheen, who helped a competitor during the Democratic primary by doing a benefit show at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks.

Actor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. has already agreed to help Sherman. “He is supporting me because I am a strong environmentalist,” Sherman said.

With television and movie stars serving as America’s royalty, their presence can add a dash of excitement to an otherwise ho-hum campaign event.

“People will pay for the opportunity to meet celebrities,” said Robert Gallaway, chairman of the Ventura County Democratic Party. “It’s a real advantage for any campaign to draw upon people in the entertainment industry.”

State Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), who represents Ventura, Santa Paula and Ojai, cashed in on this phenomenon in June. He raised more than $30,000 from supporters who sipped wine and nibbled on hors d’oeuvres with Larry Hagman, Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson.

How O’Connell linked up with these stars illustrates the way relationships can form between politicians and celebrities.

O’Connell grew friendly with Danson when the senator authored a bill to protect California’s coastal waters from more offshore oil drilling. Danson, the founding president of the American Oceans Campaign, applauded O’Connell’s legislative plan and this summer agreed to help fatten O’Connell’s reelection coffers.

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Hagman and Steenburgen--who is married to Danson--happen to be O’Connell’s constituents. They also happen to be Ojai residents angry that the National Weather Service erected the 98-foot radar tower atop Sulphur Mountain near their homes without notifying them.

“We’ve worked with them on the tower,” the senator said.

O’Connell recently raised the issue with Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor while he was in Washington with other state lawmakers. The National Weather Service falls within the domain of the Commerce Department.

The Arkansas-born Steenburgen is a personal friend of President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, and she has spoken at small gatherings across the county to raise money for the Clinton-Gore ticket.

She has been extraordinarily active in political and community causes, doing TV ads to fight for a new wing of the county public hospital and raising money to care for people with AIDS, to feed the hungry and to subsidize cash-strapped public libraries.

She married Danson earlier this year, and the duo seemed to be emerging as the first couple of Ventura County politics until they got tied up in the production of a new CBS sitcom, “Ink,” set to air this fall.

Like anyone else, celebrities are most apt to get involved in politics when an issue personally affects them.

Selleck, a conservative who lives in Hidden Valley near Thousand Oaks, has supported a number of Republican candidates. A law-and-order buff, he once filmed a TV commercial in support of the county sheriff’s budget at a time of shrinking public dollars.

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Selleck got acquainted with the Sheriff’s Department when he was granted a special permit to carry a concealed weapon. He was worried about security because of aggressive fans and helicopters flying low over his Hidden Valley estate.

Of all local causes, though, the proposed dump in Weldon Canyon near Ojai has been the cause celebre of local celebrities.

Hagman and Steenburgen were active opponents of the proposed landfill, lobbying Supervisor Maggie Kildee, who once was the swing vote on the dump proposal.

Musician Chris Hillman, formerly of the Byrds, helped organize a Stop Weldon Canyon Dump benefit concert that featured David Crosby, Kenny Loggins, Jackson Browne, Alan Thornhill and the Desert Rose Band.

Actor Scott Bakula, star of the series “Quantum Leap,” held a fund-raiser for unsuccessful supervisorial candidate Trudi Loh, who opposed the Weldon landfill.

Supervisor John K. Flynn of Oxnard found himself on the wrong side of the Weldon Canyon issue, and conspicuously bereft of support from stars in his reelection campaign.

Flynn recalls receiving one donation from one celebrity: songwriter Mike Stoller. “Why would a guy who wrote ‘You Ain’t Nothing but a Hound Dog’ contribute money to me? I don’t know. But he did.”

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With Ojai stars now shifting their focus to the National Weather Service’s Doppler radar tower, they have lined up political support ranging from U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer to Long, the candidate for county supervisor.

Long recalls chatting with Larry Hagman at the Ojai Music Festival. “We got to talking about Doppler radar towers and the philosophy of government. And he turned to his wife, and said, ‘Maj, we are going to have a party for this young lady.’ ”

It was some party. The Hagmans literally opened their 22,000-square-foot mansion to Long’s political supporters. Huge sliding-glass doors receded into the walls, as well as a retractable glass skylight to turn the parlor into a well-furnished breezeway with views reaching the Pacific Ocean to the west, the mountains to the east.

“Welcome to Heaven,” said Maj Hagman, ushering Superior Court Judge William L. Peck into her home. She led a team of volunteers, all wearing bright red aprons stamped with the word “Dallas,” in cooking the food, pouring the wine. A jazz band played next to the indoor pool.

“This is truly a heavenly hilltop,” Long said during her speech to her supporters. “It’s a quality of life that we all love and enjoy and want to protect.”

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The Hagmans have opened their home before, to raise money to fight the Weldon Canyon dump and once for Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley). The congressman introduced a bill to study possible health risks associated with weather service radar.

“We did one for Gallegly last year and we raised about $30,000 for him,” Larry Hagman said.

Hagman said many people mistakenly believe he is a Republican, somehow ascribing to him the attributes of his “Dallas” character, the ruthless Texas oil baron J.R. Ewing.

In fact, he said, he has been registered with the Peace and Freedom Party since the Vietnam War. He does not vote only Democratic or Republican, jumping party ranks to support candidates he believes are best qualified.

Mostly, Hagman wants to make things happen. And he is annoyed with battling the federal bureaucracy over the radar tower that looms near his property.

“I’d never gotten into local politics before,” Hagman said. “When we appeal to the people we elect, it has to start here. We have to start at home.”