$300-a-Plate Dinner Helps Reiner Chip $150,000 Off His Big Campaign Deficit

Ira Reiner, burdened with the largest campaign debt of any incoming Los Angeles County district attorney when he took office a year ago, has chipped about $250,000 off the deficit in the last seven months, according to a key Reiner strategist.

A $300-a-plate dinner for Reiner held this week at the Century Plaza attracted about 450 people and raised about $150,000, said William M. Wardlaw, a lawyer and political adviser to the district attorney. About 50 other contributors purchased tickets but did not attend.

A dinner last June at Chasen’s restaurant raised about $100,000, Wardlaw said.

“In the last 12 months, we’ve demonstrated that Ira Reiner is not only not a bad fund-raiser,” said Neil B. Rincover, Reiner’s administrative assistant, “but that he’s very good.”

However, some of Reiner’s aides suggested that the real test will come in the next year, when, Wardlaw said, Reiner plans to retire much of the remaining $500,000 debt--$300,000 of which is owed to banks and the remainder to private individuals.

Clean Slate by Reelection

“Our strategy is to eliminate the bank debt and some additional individual debt by the end of ’86 and early ‘87, so beginning sometime in early ’87 Ira can begin raising money for his (1988) reelection,” Wardlaw said.

“The goal is that we’ll . . . have a substantial war chest by the time he’s up (for reelection) so there will be no borrowing.”

Unlike the campaigns of some of his past political opponents, Reiner’s have never been particularly well financed and instead have relied heavily on loans.

The debt became an issue during Reiner’s first campaign for the district attorney’s post. Then-incumbent Robert H. Philibosian, whom Reiner defeated in a June, 1984, primary, suggested that owing so much money to so many people could create serious conflicts of interest for Reiner.

Among the co-chairs of last Tuesday’s dinner were Irving Azoff, the recording industry executive who helped guide The Eagles to success; Sherry Lansing, former head of production and president of 20th Century Fox; Shirley M. Hufstedler, former U.S. secretary of education, and Paul Ziffren, who served as chairman of the board of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee.