Bradley Sends Back $6,000 Contribution to Occidental Corp.

Mayor Tom Bradley has returned $6,000 in campaign contributions from Occidental Petroleum Corp., whose controversial Pacific Palisades drilling project he approved 14 months ago.

Bradley’s decision came after the mayor told a San Jose Mercury News reporter on Monday that he has shunned Occidental contributions since his decision approving the Palisades project. However, a quick check by the mayor’s campaign staff revealed that Bradley received $6,000 in three installments after his reelection last April.

Bradley campaign spokeswoman Ali Webb said Wednesday that once the mayor was told of the Occidental contributions, he angrily ordered their return Tuesday. Campaign accountant Jules Glazer said a check was made out for the amount Tuesday afternoon and sent to the oil company. The most recent contribution from Occidental was a $3,000 check last Dec. 19 for a Bradley fund-raiser at the Century Plaza, Webb said.

“The rule of politics is there are no refunds,” Glazer quipped. “I guess it’s not true in this case.”

The issue of campaign contributions has become a hot one in the apparent two-way race for governor between GOP incumbent George Deukmejian and Bradley. Democrat Bradley repeatedly has called upon Deukmejian to return $19,250 in campaign contributions from Operating Industries Inc., which runs a toxic waste dump in Monterey Park. The Deukmejian Administration is actively urging the federal government to exempt part of the site from waste cleanup requirements so the land can be sold.

The Bradley camp continued to call for the Deukmejian refund on Wednesday. However, Deukmejian campaign chairman Larry Thomas issued a quick rejoinder, claiming that Bradley is guilty of “hypocrisy” in accepting the Occidental contributions after he had signed the drilling ordinance. The project is tied up in the state Court of Appeal.

“(Bradley) has gone from one end of the state to another suggesting the governor has received contributions from people and somehow, with a big smear, suggesting that something has been done wrong or improper,” Thomas said. “He has never . . . indicated what is wrong, illegal or unseemly.

“We’re not suggesting anything illegal or improper about him accepting contributions from Occidental,” Thomas added, “(but) I don’t think it takes great courage to accept contributions, make a decision about the contributor and then not accept them any more.”

There was some confusion within the Bradley campaign Wednesday on whether the mayor had ever issued such a ban against Occidental contributions. Campaign chairman Tom Quinn said a few days after Bradley approved the hotly debated Occidental drilling proposal early last year that he advised the mayor--and Bradley agreed--that to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, all Occidental campaign contributions should be refused. Occidental previously had made thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Bradley.

“That (the ban) was a policy communicated to everyone in the campaign,” said Quinn, who last year also served as chairman of Bradley’s mayoral campaign. “I thought there would be the appearance of impropriety, and I didn’t feel I should have to deal with that. The issue was very emotional and very controversial, and I didn’t feel like interjecting that in the mayoral race to a greater extent than it happened to be.

“I thought it was best to err on the side of caution,” Quinn said.

Quinn said he called an Occidental representative about Bradley’s decision and “it was my sense that they understood and respected my feeling on that.” Quinn refused to identify which Occidental representative he had called.

Declining to discuss specifics, Frank Ashley, a spokesman for the oil company, said: “Occidental is a good corporate citizen of California. . . . We have supported Mayor Bradley for many years, and we will continue to support worthy public officials and public causes throughout California.”

Quinn said no Occidental contributions were received during the mayoral campaign. He speculated that apparently after the mayor’s reelection, Occidental received invitations to several Bradley events, including his July inaugural ball, and mistakenly assumed the contribution ban had been lifted.

But Bradley’s 1985 mayoral campaign manager Mike Gage said: “I don’t remember hearing any decrees from anybody (about Occidental contributions). I did (however) make the comment during the campaign there was no way we could take a bloody campaign contribution from Occidental.”