
Freedom Writer - March 1996

ACTIVIST PROFILE
Kathy FrascaMainstream Voters Project

Kathy Frasca, 48, is married and the mother of a 16-year-old 
boy in public high school, and a 21-year-old daughter 
in the army. While she enjoys her role as a homemaker, 
Kathy finds time for other rewarding activities. She 
works as a bookkeeper for her husband's roofing business 
and volunteers  for a wildlife rehabilitation organization 
caring for injured birds and animals.

Since 1992, Kathy has served as a school committee 
member of Jamul/Duzura School District, a small district 
in rural, eastern San Diego County, California.

Kathy first became an activist ten years ago when her 
daughter was in elementary school. Some parents affiliated 
with the Institute for Creation Research attacked the 
school's curriculum, textbooks, and library books. 
That attack served as a wake-up call for Kathy to become 
involved in preserving public education.

Then, in 1990, Kathy joined a community planning group's 
advisory board on land use in San Diego County. That 
involvement exposed her to politics on a county-wide 
basis.

"All of a sudden," she said, "there were a bunch of 
candidates who seemed to know nothing about the issues; 
they were all using similar terminology." Through reading 
the newspapers and talking to friends, she noticed 
the same phenomenon in other communities.

Only a year before, the Rev. Pat Robertson's Christian 
Coalition had formed in Virginia out of the ashes of 
his failed 1988 bid for the Republican presidential 
nomination. However, in San Diego County the Christian 
Coalition had not yet made inroads. Nevertheless, local 
fundamentalist church-goers began to organize.

Before anyone caught on, a whole slate of "pro-family" 
candidates were running for school boards, city councils, 
water district boards, and planning boards. In fact, 
about 100 conservative churches put forward 90 candidates 
for various offices.

Using Christian phone banks, and leafletting car windshields 
on the Sunday before the Tuesday elections, the churches 
mobilized their voting troops. When the smoke cleared, 
60 of the 90 candidates were successful. 

General voter apathy and an anti-incumbent mood helped 
the conservatives achieve their victory. That election 
also helped popularize the term "stealth candidate," 
because, by-and-large, the public had no idea who these 
candidates were. They didn't campaign; they used the 
church networks to get elected.

After that election, Kathy and some of her acquaintances, 
including Rita Collier and Marjorie Van Nuis, started 
a non-partisan group called the Mainstream Voter's 
Project (MVP) to fight political extremism. They took 
the position that "informed voters will reject candidates 
with extremist political agendas."

MVP has served as a model for other groups across the 
nation. Now, in countless communities, citizens are 
joining together to fight the Radical Religious Right.

MVP serves to educate voters about candidates and elected 
officials who try to hide their real agenda. These 
hidden agendas are usually of a right-wing extremist 
nature, and are exposed through publishing a newsletter 
called _The_Bulletin_, press releases, presentations 
to groups, and networking.

Frasca obtains her information through networking with 
other activists and organizations, scrutinizing campaign 
contributor lists and candidates' statements, reading 
many newspapers, attending meetings of the opposition, 
and regularly browsing the Internet.

While MVP mostly focuses on candidates in San Diego 
County, their reach sometimes goes across the country. 
MVP is especially concerned about attacks on public 
education.

While many of Frasca's successes are accomplished behind 
the scenes, she knows that MVP has produced more informed 
voters and has had an impact at the ballot box. The 
media  not only in San Diego  but across the country, 
has responded enthusiastically to information supplied 
by the Mainstream Voter's Project.

Many credit MVP for Religious Right radical Steve Baldwin's 
defeat in the 1992 California assembly race. In 1992, 
only a third of the Radical Religious Right candidates 
were successful.

Kathy has been a persistent worker for our First Amendment 
freedoms. In 1993, Americans United for Separation 
of Church and State awarded her its distinguished Religious 
Liberty Award for her work in "defense of non-sectarian 
public education and church/state separation." Today, 
Kathy serves as chair for that group's chapter in San 
Diego County.

In spite of her perseverance, Kathy admits, "I get 
discouraged a lot."  

"One of the things that keeps me going is my children. 
I don't want any of their freedoms taken away from 
them. I'm concerned about my daughter, that she might 
grow up in a society resembling The Handmaiden's Tale."

Kathy relies upon her sense of humor when the going 
gets tough. "Also," she said, "be persistent; realize 
that there a lot more out there who think like you 
do. You are not alone."

"Additionally," she advises activists, "keep up your 
contacts with others, keep networking. Read as much 
as you can about the subject. Read newspapers, books, 
and the opposition's material."

"And, don't be too quick to label people you don't 
agree with. It's important to realize that there are 
caring people who don't agree with you, that they have 
the same concerns you have."

"We can win," Kathy said, "by not giving up, and educating 
the public. Truth will prevail." 

_Contact_Mainstream_Voters_Project_at_PO_Box_19966,_
San_Diego,_CA_92159,_or_by_phone_(619)_464-4417._Email:_
[ref001]teal1@aol.com._

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