Heston’s PAC Pulls In $48,800 in Alabama

Moses visited Alabama--site of a fierce political struggle over the Ten Commandments--at least twice last year and lo, a sea of checkbooks opened and $48,800 rolled into the conservative coffers of Arena PAC.

Arena PAC, nicknamed Moses PAC, is the political action committee started in 1996 by actor Charlton Heston to help fund his travels around the country in support of Republican candidates.

The state where public officials have rallied to the defense of the Ten Commandments being displayed on a courtroom wall has outpaced all others with its response to Heston, who portrayed Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s film “The Ten Commandments.”

Last fall, as the fight over religion peaked, Heston held fund-raisers for Arena PAC in Tuscaloosa and Montgomery. At one point, Gov. Forrest “Fob” James Jr. pledged to call out the National Guard to keep the Ten Commandments on Etowah County Circuit Judge Roy S. Moore’s wall in northern Alabama. A federal judge had ordered the display removed.

Federal Election Commission documents show that 67% of the $72,800 in individual contributions received by Arena PAC from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 1997, came from Alabama. Arizona was a distant second with $12,000.

“I guess people in Alabama agree with his beliefs and are willing to help,” said Jimmy Hinton, a Tuscaloosa businessman whose home was the scene of a Heston fund-raiser.

Generally, Heston advocates lower taxes and opposes abortion. He strongly opposes gun control measures and was elected to the National Rifle Assn. board of directors last spring.