Is Common Cause Developing Clout?
Chapman, William B.
Has Common Cause Developed Any Clout? by WILLIAM CHAPMAN In any analysis of the anti-war move- ment of recent years, two truisms stand out: One, there is a surplus of well-meaning statements and...
...The most revealing record is that chalked up by O'Neill's Democratic statement...
...I'm getting these calls and telegrams and I don't even know what you're up to.' " Knowing "what you're up to" is at least half the battle on Capitol Hill...
...It is now possible, for the first time in many years, for ordinary members of the House to request and obtain a re- corded teller vote on amendments to key legislation...
...Rather, it con- sisted of one of the most sophisticated and closely-targeted campaigns run from Washington in recent years...
...It has developed a sophistica- tion in grass-roots organization that never existed outside of political par- ties, a few business-oriented pressure groups, and labor unions...
...some sources say he was then induced by Minority Leader Ford to remove his name...
...The tightly-organized phone cam- paign was established by the political consulting firm headed by Matt Reese, a recognized expert in mass persua- sion...
...I considered them very effective...
...Nei- ther statement has the force of law...
...Citizens can ex- ert pressure to influence or change votes...
...You always know when la- bor or the Chamber [of Commerce] or some environmental group has sent out a newsletter...
...It will be interesting to see what Common Cause can harvest in the months to come...
...A slightly smaller proportion agreed to call five friends...
...Some were Democrats, some were Republi- cans, and a large number were inde- pendents...
...Signing a statement or voting for an amendment is inevit- ably the result of a variety of forces for any Congressman...
...We won- der if you would try to get your Con- gressman to sign the Mosher state- ment...
...The Republican House leadership, includ- ing Minority Leader Gerald Ford of Michigan, made a modest attempt to dissuade GOP Congressmen from sign- ing Mosher's statement...
...It is this kind of imbalance that Common Cause, the citizens' lobby or- ganized by former Health, Education and Welfare Secretary John Gardner, is striving to rearrange...
...Will you help...
...Most of the letters I got were quite objective," Broomfield recalls...
...In this kind of arena, an organiza- tion such as Common Cause is able to apply pressures and check the results...
...It represents a fundamental failure of the peace movement and allied groups to move the "system" to the position desired by a vast majority of citizens...
...They heard from people who, to the Congressmen's knowledge, had not previously expressed opinions on the war...
...By mid-June, the telephone calls had reached more than 10,000 people...
...Twelve hours a day, volun- teers would man the telephones in shifts, calling citizens in the targeted districts who had indicated by public pledges (and by paying fifteen dol- lars in annual dues) that they sub- scribed to Gardner's views...
...It has orga- nized a unique constituency of afflu- ent, normally uninvolved Americans...
...Each person was urged to call five friends in his district and ask them to make similar appeals to their Con- gressman...
...By the testimony of several Congressmen, Common Cause had at least called their attention to the O'Neill resolu- tion...
...The goal was to place on record a solid corps of Congressmen who could be counted on to vote for specific amend- ments to military appropriations that would curtail the Administration's le- gal and financial capacity to wage war in Indochina after the end of this year...
...Congressmen interviewed said, almost without exception, that they were hearing from a new element of their constituency...
...He's a Congressman from Ohio...
...They are now exposed, out in the open where their names are tallied and their votes can be reported to the voters in their home districts...
...The clearest test came this spring on a campaign, little noted by the media, to induce members of the House to sign either of two "statements of pur- pose" pledging themselves to strive for the withdrawal of U.S...
...Rep- resentative Silvio Conte ultimately signed the statement...
...Thanks very much...
...Common Cause is no revolution- ary movement capable of transform- ing Congressional politics overnight...
...There is a superfluity of organiza- tions devoted to ending the war, es- tablishing "new priorities," and setting this country on the road to prosper- ity, peace, and equal opportunity for all citizens...
...Or is it simply another amalgamation of do-gooders, blessed with money and an appealing leader...
...Throughout this period, Common Cause itself was growing at a rapid rate...
...each one merely represents a public in- tent by the signers...
...forces from Vietnam by the end of this year...
...Most of the mail Broomfield received urging him to sign Mosher's resolution came from the affluent end of his district, the Birmingham-Bloomfield area which is composed of upper-income families...
...There was none of the hard sell about it...
...But many Representatives, for the first time, ad- mitted that they were forced to think through and finally express their op- position because a new element of their constituency made their opinions felt...
...Only twenty-one Republicans had signed Mosher's statement by June 15...
...This isn't that type of campaign...
...According to one Matt Reese organizer, "That's the highest percentage I've ever seen in any campaign...
...The increase came mainly from middle-of-the-road House mem- bers who never had bothered to regis- ter their views, pro or con, on the war...
...The stark fact is that until the middle of June, 1971, the House never had taken a significant recorded vote on any legislative amendments affecting the expendi- tures for the war in Vietnam...
...By June 16, the number had risen to 121 Demo- crats, seven short of a party majority and twenty-one more than the num- ber who had supported a similar meas- ure in the House Democratic Caucus last winter...
...For the most part the Congressmen were from sub- urban districts...
...previously, they were able to dodge them...
...Pettis's aides deny this, but they do acknowledge a vast assortment of mail from previously unheard-of constituents who urged him to sign...
...Votes, it in- sists, are what count...
...A typical conversation went like this: "This is Jeanette Smith of Com- mon Cause in Washington...
...Only one person can end the war —you," declared the message present- ed by Common Cause in scores of newspaper advertisements...
...But the comments of several GOP mem- bers is instructive...
...Common Cause's objective in stim- ulating the letter-writing campaign was not merely to advance a "state- ment of purpose" in the House...
...He received between 200 and 300 let- ters urging him to sign the Mosher statement, most of them from people never active previously in politics...
...Gen- erally, we're getting short notes and well-reasoned letters...
...Perhaps most important is the new source of this expression of opinion...
...It is im- possible to pin down anyone who ad- mits categorically that he publicly changed his position on Vietnam be- cause of the Common Cause-generat- ed campaigns in his district...
...But it is now customary for between 375 and 400 members to be "flushed out" for votes on such amendments...
...The "citizens' lobby" may not seem im- portant to academicians or casual stu- dents of American government, but to those who work in the Congressional vineyards it represents major progress...
...a Democratic statement was passed around by Representative Thomas A. ("Tip") O'Neill of Massachusetts, the majority whip and some of his middle- of-the-road colleagues...
...Two, there is a short- age of political clout...
...We'd like Congressman Conte to go on record by signing Mosher's statement...
...by WILLIAM CHAPMAN In any analysis of the anti-war move- ment of recent years, two truisms stand out: One, there is a surplus of well-meaning statements and urgent calls to action...
...On April 20, when the Common Cause campaign began in earnest, the statement had seventy-four signers, primarily those Congressmen whose disgust with the war in Vietnam had been publicly pronounced...
...First, Common Cause has in these months of its infancy managed to grow to a sizable membership, one large enough to guarantee attention for some years to come...
...That, unquestionably, Common Cause had done in a number of instances...
...But few of them have any understanding of what it takes to translate these lofty goals into votes where they most immediately count— in Congress...
...It's to end the war in Indochina...
...Representative Charles J. Carney, Ohio Democrat, is another Congress- man chalked up as a Common Cause victory...
...The origin of such pressures was no haphazard operation...
...John Gard- ner rightly observed recently that one of the most difficult tasks of any citi- zens' movement would be to "flush out" the Congressman who, in the past, has been reluctant to take a stand on the major issues of our times...
...He claims he would have signed the state- ment anyway, although nothing in his record indicates he is the sort of Re- publican who would buck the national leadership to sign anything implying criticism of the White House...
...It is not simply a para- dox when the Gallup Poll records that three out of four Americans oppose the war, and the U.S...
...The experience of Representative William S. Broomfield, a moderate Republican from well-to-do suburban Detroit, is representative...
...troop withdrawals...
...Early in the spring, Gardner's group pin-pointed about fifty districts for special attention, zeroing in on the Representatives who had never ex- pressed an opinion on the war before but who might be susceptible to con- certed public pressures...
...By the middle of June, about 175,000 people had responded to Gardner's advertisements—and Gard- ner was forced to deny Republican National Committee charges that he was running for President...
...Is Common Cause really a new political phenome- non capable of backing up its high- sounding phrases with voter activism...
...There are two significant trends which suggest more possibilities in the future...
...They [Common Cause] have been able to reach out and iden- tify the real opinion leaders in many districts—the people I call the 'diffus- ers'—people who can influence large segments of the population...
...But a spokesman for O'Neill said: "We suddenly started getting all these calls from people [Congressmen] ask- ing, 'What the hell is this statement all about...
...At the same time, however, significant pressures were brought to bear on that most ponderous and con- servative branch of government, the House of Representatives...
...WILLIAM CHAPMAN is a national affairs editor of The Washington Post...
...It is clear that not all of those who signed the statements were pre- pared to vote for specific cuts in mil- itary funds...
...But has it worked...
...Carney acknowledges receiving a certain amount of Common Cause- generated mail from his district, but he denies that he was pressured by the letter writers into signing O'Neill's statement...
...The type of pressures brought by Common Cause's constituency was best summed up by Representative Esch, also a moderate Republican with no record of opposing the Nixon Ad- ministration: "They are people who are analytical, more knowledgeable and sophisticated than your normal letter-writers...
...Still, her staff acknowledges a flood of mail from upper-income areas...
...Similarly, Representative Florence Dwyer, New Jersey Republican, is claimed as a Common Cause convert, but she insists that her signing of the Mosher state- ment was a natural conversion due to her growing anti-war sentiment...
...One of the most curious examples is Jerry Pettis, a Republican Congress- man from the very conservative South- ern California district of San Bernar- dino county—who, incidentally, was supported in his first campaign for Congress in 1966 by Richard M. Nix- on...
...Second, there are fundamental changes taking place in the House which will make its members more vulnerable to precisely the kind of pressure Common Cause can generate...
...Of the seventeen Democrats target- ed by Common Cause, eight had signed up by the middle of June...
...Outside of such recognized lobbies as labor, the Chamber of Commerce, and the like, Common Cause now qualifies as one of the largest mass-membership lobbies operating in and out of Washington...
...They're smart and they're doing all of the right things," said one of Rep- resentative Dwyer's aides...
...Any Congressman can tell from his mail when the usual pres- sure groups are engaged in a concerted campaign...
...As one of its lobbyists explained: "These are the people who can pick up their telephone and get their Con- gressman on the line with very little effort...
...The Congressmen felt the pressures in a variety of ways: Prominent peo- ple in their districts wrote, tele- graphed, or presented in person their deeply-felt opinion that the war had gone on far too long and that the only practical way to end it was to set a final date for U.S...
...Common Cause's score- board showed that ninety per cent of the 10,000 persons reached by tele- phone agreed to register their personal views with their Congressman...
...It's not boiler-plate stuff we're getting...
...Common Cause, like most lobbies, exaggerates its influence...
...From these and interviews with a score or more of other Congressmen, one can distill this: The pressure brought by Common Cause did not spin a large number of House mem- bers around in their tracks...
...There are a lot of new names on the list...
...In Common Cause's plush, modern headquarters in downtown Washing- ton, an old-fashioned "boiler room" was set up...
...For example, it claims Representative Kenneth J. Gray, Illinois Democrat, as a convert, but Gray says he was led to sign the Democratic statement of purpose by the urgings of "Tip" O'Neill, whose position as Democratic whip lends a certain extra persuasion...
...Common Cause's lobbyists and grass-roots campaigners launched a major effort to align Democratic Congressmen with that anti-war posi- tion...
...Typical was this observation by Representative Marvin L. Esch of Michigan, one of the orig- inal sponsors, with Mosher, of the Re- publican "statement of purpose": "I've heard from several Congressmen who said that the faucets were turned on in their districts by the Common Cause people...
...The track record of the Republican resolution is less persuasive...
...They need only to be convinced which votes need to be changed on which issues...
...A lot of them are from businessmen and professional people...
...But getting him interested in the first place is a major achievement for any lobbying group...
...Even Representative Dan- iel Rostenkowski, Illinois Democrat and an original co-sponsor of the O'Neill statement, said he did not feel committed to voting for specific cuts...
...One can say that the process has begun and that Common Cause played some sig- nificant role in the flushing-out...
...No great national groundswell was generated by the organization's inten- sive efforts...
...It was precisely this action that Com- mon Cause performed most ably— alerting members that a new move- ment was underway and forcing them to take an interest...
...M-o-s-h-e-r...
...none would admit categorically that Common Cause's constituents had pushed them over the border line...
...Mosher...
...From this experience in the spring and summer of 1971, one can draw several somewhat ambiguous conclu- sions...
...The evidence at this point suggests that Common Cause does indeed have clout...
...Senate, afire with anti-war fervor for two years, never- theless turns down the McGovern- Hatfield amendment...
...Common Cause is not switching masses of votes over- night on Capitol Hill, but it is, through a growing network of citizen-lobbyists, putting enough heat on a "swing" group of Congressmen to make a no- ticeable difference...
...A Republican statement was circulated early this year by Representative Charles Mosh- er of Ohio and other Republicans...
...It has begun to organize a highly influential, largely affluent, and previously silent corps of citizens into a national lobby of se- rious proportions...
...The new voices were rep- resentative of upper-middle-class, well- educated people who were participat- ing in politics for the first time...
...Gray said he has received only "five or six letters" from people in his Southern Illinois district who could be identified as Common Cause advocates...
...In the end, he refused...
...His was a Common Cause tar- get district early in the spring, and by early April Carney wrote to a constitu- ent: "After a great deal of soul-search- ing, I have decided to support Con- gressman O'Neill's statement of pur- pose calling for a total withdrawal of American troops by December 31, 1971...
...Pettis was reliably reported to have agreed to sign the original Mosher statement...
...It will take time to get the messages through those lines, but Common Cause seems particularly well structured to remain in business and to attain enough influence to ac- tivate some of the movers and shakers —the "diffusers"—of middle-class society...
Vol. 35 • August 1971 • No. 8
