The Telegraph The campaign to shape the issues agenda of the 1996 races for the White House has many faces By KEVIN LANDRIGAN,Telegraph Staff,12/ 26/95
The campaign to shape the issues agenda of the 1996 race for the White House has many faces. They are six of the angelic children who died from eating tainted meat. Their parents are pleading with Republican front-runner Bob Dole to give up on his long crusade for regulatory reform that would relax meat inspections. He is the sinister-looking, Grim Reaper posing as the "Big Sugar" industry that a Florida-based environmental group claims is killing the Everglades by robbing or polluting its fresh water. And they are "Mortimer the Moose" and the "Fat Cats", liberal activists dressed up in cuddly suits to playfully urge candidates to support environmental protection and campaign finance reform. All pursue different causes but with the same intent, to use the New Hampshire presidential campaign to shine a spotlight on a public policy concern they care about. "This is all really aimed first at getting the public's attention and second at getting the candidates to focus", says Pilar Olivo of New Hampshire Citizen Action, which is pushing for campaign finance reform. "In this day and age, you've got to be creative in order to stand out." Jim Courtovich, New Hampshire campaign manager for U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, says it poses unique obstacles for campaign workers planning events for their candidate. "You get to a stop and there's the moose, a chicken, a fat cat, all coming at your candidate wanting a piece of him. Sometimes I feel like I've just walked through the front gate of Disney World", Courtovich says. Primary observers believe the level of grass-roots activism to force debate on issues in the presidential campaign is greater than it ever has been. Every campaign has had its devotees to issues, but the tactics to inform and confront tended to be straightforward. The anti-deficit Concord Coalition, for example, papers the cars in parking lots at campaign events, giving them snippets on the fiscal record of the candidate they have just seen. This new wave of guerrilla warfare uses either shock value or humor to grab hold of a busy voter or put an opposing candidate on the defensive. Democratic Party Executive Director Bob Quinn says the advances of technology, including the use of the Internet and slick public relations tactics, can produce a ready arm of soldiers for policy promoters in the first-in-the-nation primary state. In addition, the explosion of alternative media covering the campaign has given these organizers so many other forums for their message. "With the push of a button in some Washington, D.C., office, you can literally manufacture wholesale outrage in New Hampshire. I think it's being used more on the presidential candidates because groups learned in congressional districts that this kind of 'in your face' politics is not only doable, it works", Quinn says. Quinn learned about the impact of such politicking the hard way, courtesy of Citizens Against Corruption, a small band of conservative, gun owner rights activists bent in 1994 on defeating Quinn's boss at the time, Democratic U.S. Rep. Dick Swett. And they succeeded with a negative media campaign that often allowed Swett's Republican opponent, Charlie Bass, to take the high road. "How many were in that group, five or six people? But they ran radio and television ads and created visibility that was very effective", Quinn admits. How well have these special-interest or grass-roots groups been at dictating their terms to those running for president? The effort is mixed, as these examples show: - Meat inspections: The Environmental Information Center sponsored the newspaper advertisement on E. coli bacteria in meat that killed the children and warned that the Dole bill would block tougher inspection standards. "Please Senator Dole, withdraw your misguided, 'regulatory reform'. Don't let your friends in the meat industry block the new inspection standards that would have saved our children's lives", the ad says in its closing. The American Meat Institute called the ad "outrageous, misleading and politically motivated", claiming a Dole amendment would make certain the tougher inspections went forward. "The individuals who placed this ad know that this bill will not impact meat safety regulations. But they've made meat safety the 'poster child' issue to block the bill and attack Mr. Dole. Frightening the American public in order to achieve political goals is wrong", says AMI President Patrick Boyle. David Sadkin, a spokesman for the environmental group, defends the ad's accuracy. "That Dole amendment did not do what it was advertised to. The fix was just delaying the inevitable, which would be to gut the new meat regulations", Sadkin says. The environmentalists won this battle, at least for now. The measure sailed easily through the House but stalled in the Senate, where Dole couldn't get the votes to close debate and bring it to a vote. Sadkin warns this feature of the House GOP "Contract with America" will return for debate next year. - Chicken labeling: Consumers Against False Labeling of Washington, D.C., hired someone in a chicken suit to stalk Dole because of a proposal that would continue to allow producers to advertise frozen poultry as "fresh". The campaign included a newspaper ad with the bold headline "These four senators chickened out" with the faces of Dole, Gramm, Dick Lugar, R-Ind., and former presidential candidate Arlen Specter, R-Pa. John Raffetto says the goal was never to turn around the result, which ultimately became part of the Department of Agriculture budget bill. President Clinton signed the law with a statement that asked Attorney General Janet Reno to review its constitutionality. "The false labeling was a done deal. We didn't expect any of the four to go back and rescind their provision. But the budget bill only has a shelf life of a year so we'll be back fighting this cause in 1996 and this helped lay the groundw ork", Raffetto says. -Everglades protection: The Committee to Ensure Florida's Economic and Environmental Future sponsored the Grim Reaper ad to tout support for a Lugar proposal that would impose a temporary, 2-cents-per-pound tax on sugar grown i n that region to create enough money to buy and protect sensitive wetlands. Spokesman Ryan Knoll says growing sugar cane in the area has resulted in pollution of runoff and also the diversion of millions of gallons of fresh water that would otherwise flow to the Everglades. The group hoped the issue would become a focal point of a televised debate of GOP candidates the night before a Florida straw poll last month. The only mention at all was a line by Dole, who pledged support for "protecting the Everglades." Vice President Al Gore upped the ante with a speech to the Florida Democratic Convention. "Let's make sure that everyone, if they affect the Everglades or enjoy its beauty, pays their fair share and that includes the sugar cane producers", Gore said. Meanwhile, the sugar industry was in force at the straw poll. Some executives wore buttons that read:"Florida Needs Sugar and Not Lugar." "The issue is still alive, and we'll keep pushing for it", Knoll says. The "Fat Cats" will have to hand out more phony, $500 bills to underline the influence of money in politics. That's because despite the chummy rhetoric of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Clinton in Claremont last summer, the president as yet has no plan and campaign finance reform did not advance in either the House or the Senate during 1995. Yet Mortimer The Moose has had more luck on Capitol Hill with Clinton's veto of a budget bill to roll back wetlands protection and other GOP efforts to lift environmental restrictions stalled in the Senate. "The kids and parents love Mortimer", Olivo says. "The candidates, well it's been kind of a mixed reaction. Maybe that's in part because the person always with him is wearing a PA (public address) system, and Mortimer is als o wired with a mike." The Telegraph The daily newspaper of Nashua and P.O. Box 1008 southern New Hampshire since 1869 Nashua, NH 03061 voice: (603) 882-2741 fax: (603) 882-2681