Dancing with disheartened Dems

McCain backers hope to reel in converts

By TED JOHNSON

When John McCain waded into the heart of the entertainment industry's fund-raising circles last week, he was able to count a bevy of well-known industry names at a Bel-Air event: Tom Selleck, Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Lionel Chetwynd, John Ondrasik and Gary Sinise. Clint Eastwood wasn't at the event, but he dined with the candidate at a previous fund-raiser. And Sylvester Stallone has lent his endorsement.

Meanwhile, there's Barack Obama's continued, protracted primary fight against Hillary Clinton, whose backers, including some in Hollywood, are none too happy with the way things are turning out.

So it's Republicans unified, Democrats not. Could McCain actually have a shot at cutting into the Democrats' lopsided dominance in the entertainment industry?

If Obama is the nominee, there's hope among McCain-ites that disaffected Clinton backers could come over to their camp, particularly those who see Obama as too weak on national security and the war on terror. There's good reason to hope -- with some national polls bearing out vows of those on the losing side to cross party lines to vote for the Republican candidate.

"I think it is going to be difficult, but I definitely think there will be some that come over to support McCain," says MGM chief Harry Sloan, one of the co-chairs of last week's fund-raiser and a longtime backer of the Arizona senator. "People have called and mentioned it to me. Whether they follow through with it, I don't know."

What McCain has going for him is that he is well known in the industry -- with longer ties than the junior senator from Illinois -- with a stockpile of relatively strong goodwill in the creative community. His skeptical eye on media consolidation while he chaired the Senate Commerce Committee even earned him a special award in 2004 from the WGA East. Not even Ronald Reagan could muster an entertainment guild honor when he was president.

"The thing about McCain is he is not perceived in the same way that other Republicans are perceived," says Chetwynd, who moved over to McCain after Rudolph Giuliani dropped out and a co-host of last week's fund-raiser. "I think it is understood he is very much of a centrist. If you want to call them 'Lieberman Democrats,' they are very comfortable with him."

"In Hollywood terms," he adds, "the McCain candidacy offers a much more moderate voice."

What hasn't happened, though, is an actual high-profile public defection from the Clinton camp to the other side. There are some good reasons why Hollywood Democrats have big doubts that many will.

For one, look at the money -- which is about the only gauge there is of a candidate's Hollywood strength. So far this cycle, Obama on his own has raised $4 million from the entertainment business, more than double the amount of all the Republican candidates combined, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

And while McCain can count on financial strength from nonindustry donors in Southern California, fueled by the support of such longtime Bush backers as former Univision chairman Jerry Perenchio, show business is flocking to the Democrats at perhaps a greater rate than in past cycles. Some 83% of all contributions have gone to Democratic presidential candidates.

It certainly can't help the GOP that Rupert Murdoch, although a McCain contributor, said at a conference last week that the Republican nominee-to-be "has been in Congress a long time, and you have to make a lot of compromises. So what's he really stand for? ... I say this sympathetically, but I think he has got a lot of problems."

For all of the acrimony among the Clinton and Obama supporters, there still is an expectation cooler heads will prevail, particularly if the race wraps up by the end of the primary schedule this week. Obama's team is ready and waiting to stem any drift of Clinton supporters to McCain by pointing to the sobering reality of McCain's position on abortion and his embrace of a continued war in Iraq. One McCain supporter complains that friends give him grief for backing a man they call "Bush 3."

"I don't think the primary is going to have any effect on the level of Democratic support here in town," says political consultant Andy Spahn, who has been helping raise money for Obama and Clinton. "I think it is going to be tough sledding for McCain here, despite the fact that he is well liked."

If anything, McCain at least is a departure from President Bush, who has all but shunned the entertainment industry during his tenure. During his 2000 campaign, Bush courted donors, with a well-remembered meet-and-greet at the home of Terry Semel that was attended by even stalwart Dems like Warren Beatty and Quincy Jones, curious as to who the new guy was. But save for a brief display of post-9/11 unity, it went downhill from there.

By contrast, McCain has reached out to the industry -- whether courting donors, or, on his most recent trip, recording an interview for the upcoming DVD release of Chetwynd's 1987 film "The Hanoi Hilton." In a campaign where candidates are inclined to display their pop-culture sensibility, McCain has gamely appeared on "Saturday Night Live" and endured a tense few moments on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

They may be running against years of Democratic dominance in Hollywood, but, as Chetwynd says, "We will meet in November and see what happens."