New Pac Will Offer Free Campaign Staffers

A new pro-Israel political action committee has been formed, not to funnel money to political candidates, but to provide young campaign workers for candidates for the House and the Senate.

The unique new pac, called ACTIONPAC, will also provide a means for young pro-Israeli activists to enter politics, explained Robert Bassin, the PAC’s creator and executive director.

Bassin, a Washington political consultant, said the idea grew out of his own experiences in Washington, starting as an intern at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee while a student at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.

Bassin went on to work for AIPAC’s student program where, he said, “I caught Potomac fever and decided politics was going to be my life.”

After working for Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Bassin founded his own political consulting firm and, along with his work for political campaigns, was able to continue his pro-Israel activism.

But his experience with students at AIPAC had convinced him that most college activists had “very few opportunities to enter into politics” after they graduated, with neither the experience nor the contacts to make them attractive to political campaigns.

Bassin’s response to the problem was ACTIONPAC, which will seek to provide a means of entry to the mutual benefit, it is hoped, of both candidates and young activists.

The 1992 congressional races will be ACTIONPAC’s debut. The PAC will select 10 graduating seniors, graduate students or recent graduates who have demonstrated pro-Israel activism while on campus.

Ideally, they will be people who want careers in government or politics.

In January 1992, the 10 people selected will go through an intensive 10-day campaign-training course. Bassin said some 40 Democratic and Republican political consultants have agreed to help in the training.

Once their coursework is over, the activists will start working as full-time staff members with campaigns. ACTIONPAC will select the candidates, who can be either Democrats or Republicans, incumbents or challengers. The only criteria are that the candidate be pro-Israel, and that he or she be in a close race against someone with a poorer record on Israel.

“We want to put these people in races where they will make a difference,” Bassin said.

For that reason, the ACTIONPAC volunteers will probably not participate in primary campaigns, Bassin said. For example, the California primary next year is expected to pit many pro-Israel supporters against each other for nominations to the Senate.

Bassin said he doubts that ACTIONPAC will have any difficulty placing its participants.

“I would find it hard to imagine a candidate rejecting having a capable full-time staff member for free,” he said.

ACTIONPAC will pay each of its activists $600 a month. Housing will be worked out either with another campaign staff member, a contributor or with local members of the pro-Israel community.

Raising its funds among supporters of Israel, ACTIONPAC has a projected initial budget of $161,800. Two-thirds of the money will go for salaries and training for the participants and less than 10 percent for administrative costs, according to a pamphlet put out by ACTIONPAC.

Bassin hopes to have more ACTIONPAC participants in future campaigns.

One of the program’s benefits, said Bassin, is that it will help expand the grass-roots political base of the pro-Israel community, through day-to-day involvement in political campaigns.