Campaign Spending in 63rd District Falls Short of Predictions

Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk) and his Democratic opponent, Dianne Xitco, spent approximately $650,000 in the 63rd District Assembly race last fall--a figure far short of the million-dollar mark some predicted would be broken in the hotly contested campaign, which attracted statewide attention and money.

Grisham, who pinned his chances firmly to the coattails of President Ronald Reagan, won election to the open Assembly seat with surprising ease, despite being outspent by Xitco, a local businesswoman and Cerritos school board member who received powerful backing from Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

Xitco in particular was expected to spend heavily to build name recognition in the district, where she was largely unknown outside of Cerritos and education circles. But her expenditures were supplemented by donations of staff, printing and mailings worth $177,406, as well as by a volunteer force of 400, who phoned residents and went door to door to spread her message and get out the vote.

“Must Win” Race

The race for the seat vacated by Bruce Young, the longtime Democratic incumbent who abruptly announced his retirement last spring, was targeted as a “must win” by both parties.

The Republican Party viewed it as a chance to improve its minority standing in the Assembly, while the Democrats wanted to hold onto the seat in the conservative but largely Democratic district, which includes Norwalk, Downey, Cerritos, Artesia, Santa Fe Springs, Hawaiian Gardens and parts of Whittier, Lakewood and Long Beach.

It was commonly predicted that the race would see heavy spending fueled by big contributions from supporters outside the district, particularly Xitco’s campaign, which had Brown’s backing, and more importantly access to his formidable campaign resources, including his money, staff and friends.

On election eve, reports circulated that Xitco’s first run for state elected office might wind up costing $800,000, primarily because of the large number of mailers--many of them full-size color flyers--she sent to voters.

But campaign disclosure statements filed Jan. 31 showed that Xitco spent $383,000 last fall challenging Grisham. She spent another $182,000 to reach the general election, outlasting 10 others in a crowded primary field.

Former Congressman

Meanwhile, Grisham, whose campaign literature often pictured him with Reagan, spent $288,355 in the general election and $34,693 in the primary, when he easily defeated two challengers. Grisham, 61, had served two terms in Congress before losing to David Dreier (R-La Verne) in the reapportioned 33rd Congressional District in 1982.

From the start of the race, Grisham predicted he could run a winning campaign on $250,000. “I wasn’t far off, was I?” the freshman Assemblyman said in a telephone interview from his Sacramento office Thursday. He said there was “always the temptation to spend more,” but he added that money alone does not win races.

“This is definitely one of those high-profile, hard-fought races that could have--and by all signs really should have--cost more than a million dollars,” said Lynn Montgomery, chief spokeswoman for the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, which monitors campaign spending.

“Spending in the 63rd appears to be a bit lower than expected,” she said in a telephone interview from Sacramento recently. “In today’s world, a race for an open seat--like the one in the 63rd--can easily run a million dollars.”

One reason Xitco’s campaign costs weren’t higher was the large number of volunteers that walked precincts, stuffed envelopes and worked phone banks. In the campaign’s closing days, Xitco, who has served eight years on the ABC Unified School District school board, estimated that her total volunteer force of party workers, friends and family approached 400.

“Can you imagine what it would have cost if even half of those people were on the payroll?” said Joel Lubin, an official with the Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee.

Loan From Business

For both the primary and general election, Xitco received $565,970 in contributions, including $159,451 in loans from a family farm and tool business, where she works. Xitco, who said after her defeat she has no plans to run again for higher political office, also received $177,406 in non-monetary services, such as donated staff, travel, consulting and campaign literature.

A large chunk of the in-kind contributions--about $73,000--was funneled by Brown through a special San Francisco-based group, Assembly 1984, which the state Democratic leaders set up to support party candidates across California, according to disclosure statements in the Los Angeles County registrar’s office.

Brown’s top political aides helped manage and direct Xitco’s campaign from Sacramento and produced several of the mailers sent to many of the district’s 123,000 registered voters.

Two years ago, Brown contributed $2.9 million to Democratic candidates across California, Montgomery said.

A recent study by the Fair Political Practices Commission showed that campaign spending in Assembly races is more than 20 times higher than in 1958, when the average spent by Assembly candidates was $3,253. In 1982, the average was $78,766, and for six races involving an open seat that year, the study showed the median expenditure by the 12 candidates was $351,000.

‘Bare Minimum’

“The days of grass-roots campaigns are over,” said Lubin, who oversees party activities in the 63rd Assembly District. “It’s just a fact of life that it now takes at least a quarter of a million dollars to run for a contested seat. And that’s just the bare minimum.

“To throw one piece of mail together for 100,000 residents, just something to give name identification and not much more, can cost $6,000 to $10,000 in the blink of an eye. Mailers can be very effective, but with the cost of postage going up, it gets expensive--in a hurry.”

Grisham, who had the strong backing of state Republican leaders--including Gov. George Deukmejian, who campaigned in the district for Grisham--received $330,101 in contributions for the primary and general elections, including $45,500 in non-monetary services. Most of it was also spent on mailers.

“If it was my own money I’d be upset and concerned,” said Grisham by telephone from Sacramento. “But the money comes from the private sector, from people who support my philosophy. And we in turn pump that money back into the economy--television ads, printing, mailing and consulting services. I don’t think it’s that unhealthy a system.”

Grisham said any type of limit on campaign spending would favor the incumbent, because most challengers are often unknown and therefore must spend more to build name recognition. “As an incumbent, I’d probably support a cap on campaign spending, if one was proposed,” he said. “But that’s easy for me to say now.”