By Jaime Castillo 
Express-News Staff Writer 

Saying they learned a lesson in 1985 by failing to secure the South Side, fluoride supporters are planning to use Spanish-language TV and radio spots as part of a $550,000 campaign to encourage voters citywide to support the Nov. 7 referendum.
 
 

Fluoride supporter Celeste Carpenter (right), a dietitian, talkes with Martha Perez as she canvasses the Jefferson High School neighborhood to see how people plan to vote. Photo by Maria J. Avila/Express-News Photographer

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The decision is evidence of an all-out effort to try to pass the controversial measure to fluoridate the city's water in hopes of improving children's dental health. Fluoridation efforts have failed twice before — in 1966 and 1985. 

With Los Angeles now fluoridated and San Diego expected to be soon, San Antonio would be the largest city in the United States without fluoridated water.

 "We're going to focus on messages in English and Spanish," said Betty Sutherland, political coordinator for the pro-fluoride effort. "We have to appeal to everyone in the city."

 Voters on the South Side played a key role in defeating the measure in 1985, which went down by 3,273 votes despite carrying more politically active City Council districts on the North Side.

 Many political observers believe anti-fluoride forces in 1985 were particularly effective at swaying voters with ads on Spanish-language TV that dramatized pouring toxic chemicals into the city's water supply.

 Sutherland said the campaign still will focus on neighborhoods north of Loop 410, where turnout is generally higher, particularly in a presidential election year. But this time around, fluoride supporters also will make a concerted effort to appeal to the heavily Hispanic South Side.

 State Rep. Robert Puente, whose district includes much of the South Side, said he agrees with the approach. 

"It's one of those things where you have to go after your base but not forget the rest of the city," Puente said.

 Members of the anti-fluoride camp said they expect the pro-fluoride movement to "throw a lot of money at it (the campaign)." But they still believe they can win the fight for the hearts, and especially the minds, of voters.

 "We will be walking blocks and maintaining a high attendance at community meetings," said Kay Turner, a veteran of the 1985 campaign and a mayoral candidate in 1991, 1995 and 1997. "We are going to try and get the truth out about the potential harmful effects of fluoride."

 In political terms, the matchup between pro- and anti-fluoride forces is strikingly similar to 1985. 

The pro-fluoride camp is once again a heavyweight with deep pockets. Its supporters include Mayor Howard Peak, Councilman Ed Garza and well-known members of the medical and health-care communities.

 Their political action committee, San Antonio Fluoridation for Everyone, has raised about $55,000 so far and expects to clear as much as $300,000 before the campaign is over.

 On top of that, several children's advocacy groups operating under a collaborative called A Vision for Children plan to spend another $250,000 on an educational campaign that will include informational pamphlets and speaking engagements about the claimed benefits of fluoride.

 That money is expected to come from anonymous groups and corporations, individual donors and nonprofit grants, said Marian Sokol, executive director of Any Baby Can, which provides services to families of children with special medical needs.

 "We see this as a public health issue and a children's issue," Sokol said. "Unfortunately, in the case of this election, it also has to be a political question."

 But their opponents are not traditional foes. 

Maverick opponents

In Turner, they have a colorful political figure with a proven knack for stirring uncommitted voters as well as those who are dissatisfied with the status quo.

 Turner also played a large role in helping defeat the Applewhite reservoir, which would have been the city's only source of surface water.

 The anti-fluoride camp is adept at the political equivalent of guerrilla warfare. Without the money to compete dollar for dollar, it relies on a grass-roots style designed to influence the moral and emotional compass of voters.

 In 1985, the group, dubbed Bexar Safe Water Committee, raised only about $5,000. Turner said this year's effort "depends on how much money I can raise."

Tax watchdog

In addition to Turner, the anti-fluoride effort also has a folksy edge with 78-year-old C.A. Stubbs, the self-proclaimed "No. 1 Tax Watchdog of Texas" and a front-line member of the anti-fluoride crusade in 1985.

 Stubbs said he has already penned three banjo tunes for the campaign, including "Fluoride Killed My Old Dog Blue," and he has cranked up an e-mail campaign that alternately refers to the pro-fluoride movement as a "socialist ploy" and a move toward the "wasteful, dangerous mass medication of our people."

 Stubbs, who called himself a reformed bureaucrat after 31 years as a computer systems operator in the Air Force, said unabashedly, "I don't accept that much of anything that my government does for me is for my benefit."

 Also in the anti-fluoride camp are Helen Dutmer, a former city councilwoman and county commissioner, and John Yiamouyiannis, a biochemist from Delaware, Ohio, who actively participated in the defeat of both the Applewhite and fluoride issues and said he will serve as an adviser this time around. 

Taking it to the streets

Despite obvious fund-raising advantages, neither side is taking the other lightly.

 The pro-fluoride side has already reached out to the Homeowner-Taxpayer Association as well as Communities Organized for Public Service and Metro Alliance, key grass-roots organizations.

 In 1985, the HTA opposed the fluoride issue, while COPS/Metro Alliance remained silent, a possible key factor in the lack of support for the issue on the South Side.

 Members of both organizations said their memberships would have meetings over the next two weeks before taking a position on this year's fluoride referendum.

 In the meantime, fluoride supporters and opponents are hitting the streets in expectation of a tough campaign.

 "It's probably going to be a rough one," Peak conceded. "This will not be a campaign waged by facts but by a lot of fiction."

 Peak said he is already alarmed by what he calls inflammatory rhetoric about overblown claims that fluoride causes cancer, brittle bones and can lead to Down's syndrome.

 Turner countered that she is concerned about the ability of fluoride supporters to "pay for grass-roots tactics." 

She said the same people who want fluoride also supported the proposed light-rail transit system that was defeated at the polls in May.

 "I believe after the light rail defeat they've got bruised egos and now they're willing to spend whatever it takes," she said. 

 That money is expected to come from anonymous groups and corporations, individual donors and nonprofit grants, said Marian Sokol, executive director of Any Baby Can, which provides services to families of children with special medical needs.

 "We see this as a public health issue and a children's issue," Sokol said. "Unfortunately, in the case of this election, it also has to be a political question."

 But their opponents are not traditional foes. 

Maverick opponents

In Turner, they have a colorful political figure with a proven knack for stirring uncommitted voters as well as those who are dissatisfied with the status quo.

 Turner also played a large role in helping defeat the Applewhite reservoir, which would have been the city's only source of surface water.

 The anti-fluoride camp is adept at the political equivalent of guerrilla warfare. Without the money to compete dollar for dollar, it relies on a grass-roots style designed to influence the moral and emotional compass of voters.

 In 1985, the group, dubbed Bexar Safe Water Committee, raised only about $5,000. Turner said this year's effort "depends on how much money I can raise."

Tax watchdog

In addition to Turner, the anti-fluoride effort also has a folksy edge with 78-year-old C.A. Stubbs, the self-proclaimed "No. 1 Tax Watchdog of Texas" and a front-line member of the anti-fluoride crusade in 1985.

 Stubbs said he has already penned three banjo tunes for the campaign, including "Fluoride Killed My Old Dog Blue," and he has cranked up an e-mail campaign that alternately refers to the pro-fluoride movement as a "socialist ploy" and a move toward the "wasteful, dangerous mass medication of our people."

 Stubbs, who called himself a reformed bureaucrat after 31 years as a computer systems operator in the Air Force, said unabashedly, "I don't accept that much of anything that my government does for me is for my benefit."

 Also in the anti-fluoride camp are Helen Dutmer, a former city councilwoman and county commissioner, and John Yiamouyiannis, a biochemist from Delaware, Ohio, who actively participated in the defeat of both the Applewhite and fluoride issues and said he will serve as an adviser this time around. 

Taking it to the streets

Despite obvious fund-raising advantages, neither side is taking the other lightly.

 The pro-fluoride side has already reached out to the Homeowner-Taxpayer Association as well as Communities Organized for Public Service and Metro Alliance, key grass-roots organizations.

 In 1985, the HTA opposed the fluoride issue, while COPS/Metro Alliance remained silent, a possible key factor in the lack of support for the issue on the South Side.

 Members of both organizations said their memberships would have meetings over the next two weeks before taking a position on this year's fluoride referendum.

 In the meantime, fluoride supporters and opponents are hitting the streets in expectation of a tough campaign.

 "It's probably going to be a rough one," Peak conceded. "This will not be a campaign waged by facts but by a lot of fiction."

 Peak said he is already alarmed by what he calls inflammatory rhetoric about overblown claims that fluoride causes cancer, brittle bones and can lead to Down's syndrome.

 Turner countered that she is concerned about the ability of fluoride supporters to "pay for grass-roots tactics." 

She said the same people who want fluoride also supported the proposed light-rail transit system that was defeated at the polls in May.

 "I believe after the light rail defeat they've got bruised egos and now they're willing to spend whatever it takes," she said. 

09/23/2000