Independent Republican group to hit Gore with its own TV ads

By Jill Zuckman, Globe Staff, 6/18/2000

NEW YORK - As the important task of building a moderate image for George W. Bush begins, a group with no formal link to the candidate or the Republican Party will be taking a leading role.

Despite its official sounding name, the Republican Leadership Council is an independent group of Republicans concerned about the rightward drift of the party. Still, with its sizable war chest, it played a major role in the GOP primary as it blitzed the airwaves with ads scolding Steve Forbes and warning him against engaging in negative, attack politics.

Now, in the general election, it is poised once again to serve Bush's interests by targeting his opponent with television ads. With the Democratic National Committee having already launched television ads for Al Gore, groups like the RLC will be picking up the slack for Bush, at least in the near term.

The Republican Leadership Council was born as a result of one family's dissatisfaction with candidates it considered too conservative. When Lewis Eisenberg's three daughters were teenagers, they were turned on to Republican politics, volunteering at the GOP's 1988 convention in New Orleans.

Four years later, Patrick J. Buchanan delivered his harsh rhetoric at the Republicans' Houston convention, leaving the Eisenberg daughters feeling that the party was hostile to women and minorities.

''He made them feel as if there was no home for socially inclusive Republicans,'' said Eisenberg, a wealthy investor and chairman of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority.

The group, backed by moderate Republicans with thick bankrolls such as Henry Kravis, the New York financier, and John Moran, a private investor who led Bob Dole's presidential fund-raising effort, promotes fiscally conservative candidates with more liberal approaches to social matters.

During the Republican presidential primary, the group blistered Forbes before he even made a peep. So vociferous was the RLC with its television ads and press releases denouncing Forbes that many accused the group of being no more than a front for Bush.

But Kieran Mahoney, a New York Republican strategist advising the RLC, said the intention was to steer the candidates and the party to the center of the GOP road.

''The main goal was to see that the Republican Party did not end up committing suicide in March so that they might live to fight another day,'' Mahoney said. ''I think they were successful in that.''

Whether Forbes would have been more successful without the RLC's presence is open for debate. But now that Bush faces a Democrat, the RLC is prepared to enter the fray once again. The group's leaders say they have not yet decided what tack to take, or how much money they will spend to execute their strategy.

A recent RLC survey conducted by Mahoney provides a blueprint for the committee's intentions. The survey was conducted in 17 presidential swing states, the likely targets of television advertising.

An RLC ad campaign could be expected to stress Bush's education ideas, for example. According to the survey, swing-state voters approved of Bush's record of ''testing students in grades 3 through 8 in reading and math in order to track academic achievement'' by 83.6 percent to 11.3 percent.

More advertising may emphasize the Clinton-Gore administration's blunders while raising money for the 1996 election. The survey found that by 63.2 percent to 19 percent, swing-state voters believe the administration ''acted unethically by making campaign fund-raising calls from the White House and selling overnight stays in the Lincoln bedroom to the highest bidder.''

Finally, the RLC may promote the notion that ''it's time for a change,'' a common tactic when attempting to oust an officeholder. The survey found that by 59.3 percent to 35.5 percent, voters in the 17 swing states agreed that ''the Clinton-Gore administration has been in office too long and it is time for a change.''

Not all Republicans approve of the RLC and its aims. Greg Mueller, Forbes's communications director, said that Ronald Reagan's strong stance against abortion would have cost him the group's support.

''It's never good to have battles with your base,'' said Mueller. ''I don't think their efforts have been very good for the unity of the Republican Party.''

And with 13 of the RLC's 23 advisory committee members supporting Bush during the primaries and eight members of the executive committee serving as ''pioneers'' for their fund-raising prowess on Bush's behalf, the group was suspected of acting as a wing of the Bush campaign. Under the law, third-party groups are barred from coordinating their actions with a specific campaign.

Eisenberg and executive director Mark Miller denied any collusion with the Bush campaign, and Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said the Bush campaign had no coordination with the RLC.

But Paul Young, a Republican strategist who advised Forbes, scoffed at the claim that there is no coordination.

''Of course there is,'' said Young. ''You're never going to get anybody to admit to that. It's a fairly common practice.''

At the Gore headquarters, officials are trying to prove that Bush is coordinating, pointing to the repeated ''coincidence'' of groups launching ad campaigns on a particular subject just as Bush begins to talk about that very topic.

Chris Lehane, Gore's spokesman, said the RLC and other groups have such close connections to Bush that they are doing his ''dirty work'' for him, allowing Bush to stay above the fray.

''George W. Bush is out there saying he's going to run a positive campaign, when in fact, his cronies, lieutenants, and cohorts are out there engaging in misleading, negative TV ads,'' Lehane said.

But Fleischer said the Gore campaign is complaining just to justify breaking its anti-soft money pledge. Gore had said the Democratic National Committee would not run any campaign ads unless the Republican National Committee did so first. With the Republican National Committee holding its fire and groups like the RLC stepping forward, Gore appears to have realized he made a tactical mistake.

''We haven't heard Vice President Gore criticize NARAL or the Sierra Club for running soft-money advertisements against Governor Bush, have we?'' Fleischer said. ''This is more politics as usual for Al Gore.''

Presidential campaigns are frequently a battleground for third-party groups trying to promote their own agendas and back their preferred candidate while staying within the technical letter of the law.

On the Democratic side, teachers' and labor unions and abortion rights groups are expected to help Gore, providing foot soldiers for phone banks and money for advertisements. Business groups and the RLC don't have nearly as many members, but will try to influence voters with ad campaigns in order to help Bush.

Regardless of the general election strategy, Eisenberg and his family are satisfied, having watched Republicans feature three candidates to their liking - Bush, John McCain, and Elizabeth Dole.

''My daughters are feeling that we are doing better,'' he said.