In the ‘Shadow,’ Nothing Lurks

PHILADELPHIA —  An alternative convention that promises to be anything but conventional got off to a raucous start Sunday when Sen. John McCain was interrupted by boos and hisses for departing from talk of campaign finance reform to underline his endorsement of George W. Bush.

McCain won cheers with his trademark attack on the influence of big money on politics at the “shadow convention,” an unorthodox nonpartisan forum that is being staged during each of the party conventions by an unlikely coalition of social reformers and professional entertainers.

But the audience booed loudly when McCain said he felt bound “not by party loyalty but by sincere conviction” to urge Americans to support presumptive Republican nominee Bush.

McCain kept talking, praising Bush’s education record in Texas, but the heckling escalated. One man shouted “Gong!” while another banged on the floor. A crowd of Native American rights activists chanted “Save Black Mesa!”--referring to an Arizona tribal land dispute.

“If you’d like, I don’t need to continue,” McCain told the protesters.

Conservative columnist Arianna Huffington, a co-convenor, stepped in, saying: “You know, this is the convention where we can listen to everything with respect.”

McCain managed to finish his speech to the forum, which is being held at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center, but sporadic interruptions continued.

McCain, who was suffering from stomach flu, left immediately after his speech. But he seemed to find the combative challenge invigorating.

“That’s the nature of politics. It’s fun,” he said later. “We can’t shut them out of the political process. I’m glad they’re in it. If you proceed on the theory that independent voters are going to be the key to the election, then you have to go out and interface with them.”

Huffington made it clear that lively exchanges are completely in keeping with the irreverent spirit of the shadow convention, a political hybrid that promises to use everything from speeches to stand-up satire to showcase campaign finance reform, the racial inequities of the drug war and the gap between rich and poor.

“This is a convention that is designed to promote debate, not stifle it,” Huffington told the packed forum. “Those who want to hear people preach to the choir should go somewhere else.”

The shadow convention also is not for people who don’t like loud music and counterculture Americana.

Like a rock concert between acts, organizers interspersed speeches with everything from hip-hop to rock music with a political edge. Paul Krassner’s book “Pot Stories for the Soul” was featured on a table alongside McCain’s “Faith of the Fathers” and Huffington’s “How to Overthrow the Government.”

Among those not preaching to the choir Sunday was Rep. Tom Campbell (R-San Jose), who attacked the Clinton administration’s $1.3-billion aid package for the drug war in Colombia, saying it would be better spent on U.S. drug rehabilitation programs. He excoriated the racial gap in drug convictions, which jail more black Americans than white Americans.

“The drug war has failed,” Campbell said. “I cannot remain silent.”

Bush took hits from all sides.

A paid advertisement of one of the convening groups, the Lindesmith Center, showed a smirking Bush alongside pictures of people given lengthy drug sentences on purportedly shaky evidence. “His youthful indiscretions. Their shattered lives,” it read.

In a comedy routine with Huffington, Al Franken concocted an imaginary “push-poll,” a mudslinging tactic in which voters are telephoned by campaigners pretending to be pollsters.

“If you knew that during five-and-a-half years, [while] John McCain was hanging by his thumbs in a North Vietnamese prison camp, that George W. Bush snorted several pounds of cocaine, would you be more likely to vote for Gov. Bush or less likely?” Franken asked, to laughter.

Franken lampooned Bush’s education record, saying that now, “60% of high school seniors in Texas read at a higher rate than the governor.”

Nevertheless, one analyst at the forum thought McCain had done Bush a big favor by appearing before the crowd of young voters.

The shadow convention “does have cachet,” said Los Angeles political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe.

“I think it was basically a job interview for secretary of Defense,” she said of McCain’s appearance. “I think he has a lot of points toward that with his speech. It would have been nice if Gore could have gotten Bill Bradley to do the same thing.”

Times staff writer T. Christian Miller contributed to this story.