Coalition Will Try to Enlarge Voting Flock

With public opinion polls showing low voter interest in this year’s presidential elections, the conservative Christian Coalition will try to reverse the apathy by mounting its largest-ever church-based campaign in California before the Nov. 5 election.

Following up on a commitment made in Orange County last month by Christian Coalition Director Ralph Reed, activists will be stationed at thousands of churches throughout the country, distributing about 5 million voter guides, including 500,000 in California.

During a speech at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in September, Reed said that in heavily Republican Orange County, the guides would include information about candidates at the city council, school board and city clerk races.

“We feel especially at home in Orange County because of our strong support here,” Reed said.

The coalition’s state director, Sara DiVito Hardman, said Wednesday that the number of guides requested by California churches is almost double the 2.6 million handed out before the general election two years ago, when they broke previous records.

Ironically, the record distribution is being made in the face of a pending lawsuit against the conservative group by the Federal Election Commission filed in July. The commission alleged the coalition made illegal campaign contributions to Republican candidates by distributing millions of voter guides and organizing get-out-the-vote drives in 1990, ’92 and ’94.

Rather than hurt their effort, Hardman said the lawsuit “has energized our people and our churches because it’s totally unjustified.”

While conservative Republicans are generally considered to be the beneficiaries of the voter guides, Hardman said their campaign effort is issue-oriented, not partisan.

Seeking to broaden its political clout in this year’s elections, the national coalition focused on economic issues early on. But as public opinion polls show President Clinton taking a commanding lead, particularly on his ability to handle the economy, moral family issues have become less compelling. A Times Poll asked California to list key issues that would affect their votes for president; the economy topped the list at 20%, followed by taxes at 13%, welfare reform at 11%, education at 10% and abortion at 9%.

But the Christian Coalition’s work will be especially significant if voter turnout is low Nov. 5, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, of the Center for Politics and Economics at Claremont Graduate School.

“They will have an impact on their constituents, and their constituency is a high-propensity voting constituency,” she said.

Because of Orange County’s conservatism, however, the coalition is largely preaching to the choir, even in the reelection campaign of Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who faces a strong challenge from Democratic businesswoman Loretta Sanchez.

“No matter how outrageous he gets, he keeps getting reelected, so I don’t think it makes a difference,” Hudson added.