Activist Seeks to Galvanize GOP’s Conservative Wing

After years of serving as an outspoken leader for the Republican right at the local level, Simi Valley activist Steve Frank appears ready to hit the big time.

The 51-year-old printing supplies salesman is fast at work building himself a broader platform as president of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies--a grass-roots movement aimed at molding the GOP in its own, rigidly conservative image.

Armed with an agenda that champions such hot-button issues as school prayer, the elimination of abortion rights and the use of “divine guidance” to steer public policy, Frank’s group hopes to reform a party they say no longer represents the interests of its members.

“There are a lot of people out there who believe that government has failed and that those who are members of the power elite have forgotten who they are and what it is they stand for,” Frank said. “They’re tired of seeing their principles compromised. . . . The people want more than that. They expect more than that.”

But by standing his ground on divisive issues like abortion and school prayer, Frank has become a lightning rod for Republican critics who fear that his efforts will only undermine the party.

“If he achieves what he wants it will be the destruction of the Republican Party,” said Bob Larkin, a Simi Valley insurance agent and vice chairman of the Ventura County Republican Central Committee. “What he’s doing is fracturing the party based on the ultraconservative beliefs of a small minority.”

Since the spring of 1996, Frank, a 10-year resident of Simi Valley, has spent most weekends crisscrossing the country, persuading disaffected Republicans to form their own NFRA chapters in hopes of ridding the party of moderates.

Modeled after the powerful California Republican Assembly, the NFRA under Frank’s stewardship has met considerable success, having grown from just a handful of chapters to 43 with a membership of more than 16,000 over the past 18 months.

With its growing influence, the NFRA is credited with helping to pressure such party leaders as House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to begin a calculated tack back toward the right.

“It’s these kinds of people and these kinds of organizations that are the reason why some Republicans are moving further and further toward the right,” said Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont-McKenna College who studies the conservative movement.

“These kinds of debates are perennial in any political party, but what’s interesting this time around is how strong these very conservative elements are,” Pitney added. “Though it’s far too early to say how this will all play out, they’re causing quite a stir.”

Conservatives ‘Want to Be Heard’

The reason his organization is growing so quickly is because its socially conservative message resonates with so many salt-of-the-earth Republicans, Frank said.

“Believe me, I’m not the only one who thinks this way,” he said. “People in America are responding to this message because they’re tired of business as usual. . . . They want to be heard.”

Slightly overweight and just under six feet tall, Frank is a sharp contrast to the typical politician in both appearance and substance.

He prefers business suits that are functional rather than flashy, and he speaks at a kinetic pace, shifting easily among topics ranging from Sino-American relations to the state of Dodger baseball since media mogul Rupert Murdoch purchased the team

“Nobody bleeds Dodger blue anymore, it’s all too corporate,” he says.

Although he was born in the Bronx, Frank moved with his family to Los Angeles as a youngster, where he helped his father run the family laundromat.

Though his parents were both liberal Democrats, Frank said he never shared their political views and began expressing his conservative beliefs early, beginning as a 14-year-old hoofing the streets in support of Richard Nixon’s 1960 presidential campaign.

He served two years as a machine-gunner with the First Infantry Division in Vietnam and served on President Nixon’s Youth Advisory Commission on Selective Service and later as a delegate to the White House Conference on Youth.

In 1980 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention and was appointed president of the California Republican Assembly, of which he is now a parliamentarian.

He has mounted three campaigns of his own for public office, including a bid for state Assembly, but Frank was beaten handily in each and says he no longer holds such aspirations.

He said he is convinced that his work with the NFRA is what he was meant to do.

“I wanted to be in a position where I didn’t have to live a political life,” he said. “This allows me to pick and choose the issues and have a greater impact than I could have if I were a politician.”

A Passion for Politics

A practicing Jew, Frank and his Methodist wife, Leslie, a principal at Hollow Hills Fundamental School in Simi Valley, have been married for 25 years and have two daughters.

Frank admits to few hobbies other than bridge and said that his speaking engagements and work with the NFRA are to him what tennis and macrame are to others.

“I don’t consider this a job,” he said. “I love getting up in front of people and talking; it really gives me a charge. I don’t need anything else.”

Even some of his political rivals are impressed with his efforts to push the NFRA from the political backwaters to the national stage.

“That’s definitely a testament to Steve’s tenaciousness and energy,” said Jim Dantona, a Simi Valley-based Democratic consultant who has known Frank for more than a decade. “He is, without a doubt, the most persistent and dogged conservative I have ever met, and, even if you are a Democrat, you have to admire what he’s been able to accomplish.”

Dantona added that Frank is a rarity among today’s political leaders in that he believes deeply in the message he is spreading.

But Larkin of the county Republican Central Committee blames Frank and organizations like his for scaring off moderate Republicans, prompting some to cast ballots for Democratic candidates and others to leave the party entirely.

“Is driving people away what you’d call supporting the party?” Larkin asked. “Where I come from we call that treason and those people traitors.”