Pubdate: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 Source: Washington Post (DC) Copyright: 2000 The Washington Post Company Contact: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071 Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Author: Cathy Newman DEMOCRATS TO SPEAK OUT AT 'SHADOW' CONVENTION Two Democratic senators will risk irritating their party today by speaking in Los Angeles at an alternative convention, which aims to embarrass the Democrats into facing up to issues such as campaign finance reform. Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.), an ardent proponent of campaign finance reform, and Sen. Paul D. Wellstone (Minn.), a campaigner against the growing gap between rich and poor, are among the speakers on the opening day of the five-day "shadow" convention, the brainchild of columnist Arianna Huffington. Late Friday, Huffington was still negotiating with Jesse Ventura to persuade the independent Minnesota governor and former wrestler to do a star turn at the event, a version of which also took place earlier this month at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. Huffington wants Ventura--who put at the heart of his third-party campaign and upset victory in Minnesota a proposal to treat drug addiction as a public health problem rather than a crime--to talk about drugs, one of the themes of "Shadow Conventions 2000: A Citizens' Intervention in American Politics." Scott Harshbarger, president of the advocacy group Common Cause, dubbed this week's Democratic National Convention a "made-for-TV infomercial characterized largely by lavish corporate-sponsored receptions." He added: "The reason for doing the shadow convention is that neither of the major conventions are addressing very important issues that affect a lot of people." But Harshbarger noted that the presence of senior Democratic elected officials demonstrated that "there is at various levels in the Democratic Party a real desire to have it return to some extent to its roots." Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (Ill.) will speak Monday on poverty and the wealth gap, and other Democratic senators and representatives, including Rep. John F. Tierney (Mass.), will join the discussions later in the week on issues such as the "failed war on drugs." GOP Hops on Sanchez Flap Even though Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) dropped plans to hold a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles this week, Republicans believe the very fact that she proposed holding the event there makes her vulnerable this fall. Jim Wilkinson, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the party has put Sanchez's Orange County seat back on its target list. Sanchez took the seat from the GOP in 1996, becoming an immediate Democratic star by knocking off conservative Rep. Robert K. Dornan. "We think that Latino swing voters in the district will say that Sanchez and [the Playboy Mansion event] are not reflective of their values," Wilkinson said, adding that the GOP will now get heavily behind Sanchez's GOP opponent, schoolteacher Gloria Matta Tuchman, with fundraising assistance and other electioneering efforts. Tuchman could use the help. Federal Election Commission reports show that she had just $67,660 in her campaign account as of June 30, compared with $1.5 million for Sanchez. Political analysts considered the seat safe for Democrats before the Playboy controversy, particularly after Sanchez easily outpolled Tuchman in California's open primary in March. Tuchman wasted little time pouncing on the controversy on Friday, telling the Associated Press that Sanchez has "embarrassed her party and embarrassed the people of the 46th Congressional District." Sierra Club Answers Bush Ad The Sierra Club has gone on the air with a new television ad criticizing George W. Bush and responding to a Republican National Committee ad that went up last week praising the Texas governor's environmental record. The Sierra Club ad, which is running in Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin and Michigan and will also air in Ohio and New Mexico beginning Monday, says that Bush's environmental record is "worse than he has claimed." In its ad, the RNC said Bush "is cleaning up Texas," citing the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory as evidence that pollution is going down in the Lone Star State. The Sierra Club claims in response that 23 states have done a better job than Texas in reducing toxic pollution. Staff writer Ben White contributed to this report. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck