State GOP Plans TV Ad Blitz for Prop. 209

State Republican leaders said Monday that they hope to usher their California candidates to victory starting today with a major television blitz backing Proposition 209, the initiative to end state and local government affirmative action programs.

California GOP Chairman John Herrington said Monday that the party will far exceed the $1-million budget it had previously planned for Proposition 209. “It’s big money,” he said.

A top GOP source said the television campaign--which includes a film clip of Martin Luther King Jr.--will cost more than $2 million over the final two weeks of the campaign.

If so, it might soon amount to the political sequel to the 1994 election effort for Proposition 187--just as GOP leaders such as Gov. Pete Wilson have maintained for months.

About two weeks before the 1994 election, Wilson poured at least $2 million into television commercials for his reelection that also backed Proposition 187’s call for an end to public benefits for illegal immigrants.

The Republican post-mortem on the 1994 campaign credited Proposition 187 for creating a GOP tail wind because it was widely popular in polls and was opposed by most Democrats.

Many Republicans--such as Wilson and House Speaker Newt Gingrich--say they are seeing the same dynamic this year with Proposition 209.

But Republican strategists have been divided about whether the initiative has coattails. Some, such as Allan Hoffenblum and Ray McNally--who both are running GOP candidates in some of California’s most competitive state and congressional races--contend that it is not a “cutting edge” issue.

Wilson, however, argued forcefully last week in public statements that internal Republican polls indicate most Californians do not realize that President Clinton opposes Proposition 209. He said that disclosure would help Republican candidates--particularly GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole.

Herrington said the ad will make Clinton’s opposition clear. He said the ad, narrated by an unidentified woman in her 50s, will also point out that Clinton opposed Proposition 187 two years ago.

The commercial--done independently of the official pro-Proposition 209 campaign and produced in Sacramento by Russo, Marsh and Associates--includes a clip of King’s 1964 speech in Washington, in which he says he hopes that someday people “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

“It’s a very short script,” Herrington said. “It says quotas are wrong.” He added that Dole is not mentioned in the commercial. “This is an issue commercial, not a Dole commercial.”

Sources said the text of the ad, however, is a source of controversy between the state Republican Party and those running the Proposition 209 campaign.

Sponsors of the initiative campaign said the partisan and potentially divisive nature of the commercial’s message could harm their effort to portray the initiative as a vehicle for seeking “equal opportunity.”

“They’ve clearly made a decision to use this as an issue that defines the candidates running for president,” said Jennifer Nelson, spokeswoman for the Proposition 209 campaign. “It is not our ad. It is not our message. We can’t control what they do. Whether that harms the initiative remains to be seen.”

The commercial would be the first television ad regarding Proposition 209 to be broadcast. Both sides have run some radio commercials. But the campaigns are also struggling with cash shortages, acknowledging that major contributors have decided the issue is too controversial and have remained on the sidelines.

Proposition 209 would end racial and gender preferences in government hiring, promotions and contracting as well as in university admissions.

Opponents of the measure said Monday that they too are planning to broadcast television commercials. But a spokesman said the campaign plans to wait to see the other side first.

“We will buy ads a day at a time,” said Read Scott-Martin, spokesman for the Proposition 209 opponents.

Scott-Martin said he believes Democrats will benefit from the GOP ad. He said the commercial will hurt GOP efforts to close a wide gender gap that has developed between the presidential campaigns, with women strongly favoring Clinton.

“Every single day that Bob Dole campaigns on 209 another 10,000 women walk away from Dole to the Democratic Party,” he said. “California is being used by the most extreme elements of the radical right wing.”

Dole campaign Chairman Scott Reed said last week that the GOP presidential campaign plans to broadcast television commercials in California raising the issue of Proposition 209.

Ken Khachigian, California director of the Dole campaign, said he has never identified Proposition 209 as a likely subject for television commercials.

“I can only speak for myself,” he said. “My policy is not to rule it in or out.”

There was also some secrecy about the source of funding for the Proposition 209 commercial.

Herrington said the money was all attributable to the state Republican Party. But he also declined to discuss whether the expenditure was coordinated with the Republican National Committee or other financial sources.