AG WONT PROSECUTE IN MARKS LEAFLET CASE TWO COMMITTEES HID THE ORIGIN OF A MAILING ON THE EX SENATOR S BEHALF A HIGH

COURT RULING ALLOWS THAT PROSECUTORS SAY. Author: Mark Fazlollah, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Article Text: Saying a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision changes everything, the state Attorney General's Office has dropped its efforts to prosecute two Republican committees for concealing the origin of a campaign mailing on behalf of former State Sen. Bruce Marks (R., Phila.). Attorney General's Office spokesman Robert Gentzel said yesterday that an April 19 ruling by the nation's highest court appeared to nullify any chance of a successful prosecution of the Marks leaflet's authors. The court found that anonymous political leaflets are protected by the Constitution. In November, a state grand jury had recommended filing criminal charges against two campaign committees, the Republican Senate Special Election Fund and the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, for funding a third PAC, the FDR Federation Political Action Committee. The grand jury called FDR a sham used to conceal the involvement of Republicans in a fall 1993 mailing to 14,000 Jewish households in the Second Senate District. The FDR pamphlet, decorated with a Star of David and a menorah, promoted Marks and three other Jewish candidates - two Democrats and a Republican - on the ballot that year. Marks' campaign was the only one of the four that knew about the mailing in advance. The Supreme Court's decision focused on charges filed against an Ohio woman, Margaret MacIntyre, who was fined for printing and distributing leaflets in the name of "Concerned Parents and Taxpayers" against a proposed school tax. The high court, on a 7-2 vote, said the Constitution protected MacIntyre's right to anonymous pamphleteering, which it characterized as "an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent. . . . Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority." Now, Gentzel said, the MacIntyre ruling provides a shield for Pennsylvania Republicans. "The MacIntyre cases makes it impossible to prosecute this (FDR) case," he said. The grand jury said the FDR committee's printing was authorized by either Stephen C. MacNett, general counsel to Senate Republicans, or Michael Long, majority staff administrator for the Senate Republican Caucus.

MacNett told the grand jury that the FDR Federation PAC's name was used on the mailing because "we didn't want people to know Republicans were paying for this particular piece." The Republican Senate Special Election Fund paid for the printing, and the Senate Republican Campaign Committee paid for postage and labels, state records show. MacNett is an official in both committees. He testified that he asked Maria Keating Titelman, one of his Senate employees, to find two Jewish people in Harrisburg to serve as founders of the committee. Titelman is now an aide to Gov. Ridge. MacNett, Keating and Long were unavailable for comment yesterday. Marks said he did not know the contents of the brochure before it hit the streets. He said that later, when he reviewed the pamphlet, he determined it did not violate state election laws. "I don't believe that anybody associated with the FDR PAC violated any Pennsylvania election law," Marks said yesterday. "All proper disclosures were made." Gentzel said the effect of the Supreme Court case is that his office probably will be unable to prosecute any cases involving anonymous political brochures.