Deukmejian War Chest for ’86 Tops $3 Million

Republican Gov. George Deukmejian on Monday night boosted the war chest for his still unannounced reelection campaign to more than $3 million at a fund-raising dinner in Orange County.

Larry Thomas, Deukmejian’s press secretary, said the governor had sold about 900 tickets to the $250-a-plate dinner at the Irvine Hilton, taking in $225,000.

“That brings us up to more than $3 million,” he said.

Deukmejianis expecting another challenge in next November’s general election from Democratic Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles, whom he narrowly defeated in 1982. The governor’s aides said he hopes to have $4 million as he heads into the 1986 reelection year.

Deukmejian raised about $8 million for his first gubernatorial campaign, Thomas said, and he expects to spend at least as much next year.

Obviously buoyed by the turnout at the dinner, Deukmejian told the supporters: “I wouldn’t be surprised, if one year from tonight (the date of the next general election) we are joined together in a tremendous victory celebration.”

Deukmejian, as he often has lately, also attacked Bradley, citing recent sewage spills from city facilities into Santa Monica Bay.

“It would help if we had some strong leadership to match the environmental rhetoric coming out of Los Angeles City Hall,” the governor said, asserting that the city had illegally discharged sewage into the Pacific Ocean, becoming “one of the largest polluters in the state of California.”

Earlier, in Coronado, Deukmejian laced a basically upbeat speech about the California economy to a group of 850 business leaders with criticism of former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.