County Legislators Defend Funding Candidates in Primaries Up North

While many politicians scrambled this spring to finance their own campaigns, five Orange County legislators dipped into flush war chests to spend $10,000 to $100,000 each on contested Republican primaries in Northern California.

Their contributions--totaling $280,000, according to the candidates’ most recent campaign disclosure reports--were part of a controversial effort led by Assembly Minority Leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale). That effort raised more than $700,000 for five conservative Republican candidates in Kern County, Modesto, San Jose, Yuba City and Santa Rosa.

State Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim) and Assemblymen John Lewis (R-Orange), Ross Johnson (R-Fullerton), Dennis Brown (R-Long Beach) and Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) defended the practice, saying they were promoting candidates with ideologies similar to their own. Besides, they said, they were simply playing the same campaign-spending game as the Democrats, who funnel thousands of dollars each year to selected candidates through the Assembly Speaker.

But some Republican leaders, such as Assemblymen Stan Statham (R-Oakland) and Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia), argued that Republican campaign money should be saved until November to defeat the Democrats, not spent in June against other Republicans.

The issue has become a central one in a mounting power struggle between Nolan’s conservative faction and Statham, Mountjoy and their supporters over leadership of the Assembly Republican Caucus.

In addition, campaign reform advocates like state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) have suggested that a contributor’s trust may be violated when donated funds are transferred to a candidate whom the contributor may not support. A bill by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) seeks to outlaw such transfers although, like many previous campaign-reform measures, it is stalled on the Assembly floor.

The five Orange County Republicans gave or loaned money to these candidates’ primary races: Yuba City attorney Chris Chandler for the 3rd Assembly District, Santa Rosa rancher Martin McClure for the 8th Assembly District, Henry Olsen of San Jose for the 22nd Assembly District, businessman Bill Duplissea for the 20th Assembly District and Kern County tax fighter Anna K. Allen for the 33rd Assembly District. Only Duplissea and Chandler won their primaries.

According to disclosure reports filed July 31, Lewis and Brown spent the most on the targeted campaigns--a total of $100,000 each. According to Lewis’ report, he loaned a total of $35,000 to Olsen, $15,000 to Allen, $20,000 to McClure, $15,000 to Chandler and $15,000 to Duplissea. Brown loaned $35,000 to McClure, $20,000 to Olsen, and $15,000 each to Allen, Chandler and Duplissea.

Johnson contributed $50,000 to the targeted candidates, giving a total of $5,000 to Allen, $20,000 to Chandler, $10,000 each to McClure and to Olsen and $5,000 to Duplissea.

Royce reported a $10,000 loan to Chandler, according to his campaign report. Ferguson disbursed $20,000, including $5,000 to Allen, a $5,000 loan to Allen and $10,000 to Friends of Martin McClure, his campaign report showed.

The legislators cited compelling reasons for the Northern California contributions.

“If we simply left it entirely to the voters and had no contributions, while Willie Brown is going in and putting an enormous amount of money behind his hand-picked candidates, you can be sure that our candidate is going to lose in the fall,” Johnson said. “And I don’t want to lose.”

Johnson pointed out that two years ago he had carried an unsuccessful statewide initiative that would have barred transfers of campaign funds, but “I make no apology for playing the game by existing rules.”

In a contested primary, “you’re making a political judgment where you try to nominate the candidate,” Lewis said. For example, this spring he and his colleagues backed the “entrepeneurial” Duplissea over his “very, very liberal Republican” opponent, Lewis explained, because “we saw an opportunity to help elect someone who was more mainstream instead of a Rockefeller Republican.”

Noting that the complaints about fund transfers seem louder than in other years, Johnson said that was only because “we did it on a scale” that was not anticipated.

Ferguson noted that he was elected in 1984 in part because other Republican legislators gave him $70,000 in the primary over Orange County Republican Ken Carpenter. But he stressed that any campaign money he gave to out-of-county races didn’t come from “Orange County dollars.”

While local contributions finance Ferguson’s personal campaign expenses, he believes that money from political action committees and lobbyists is fairly spent on any candidate that shares his philosophy.

Ferguson said: “This is one of the most important reasons I’m here--to help raise the Assembly to a Republican majority.”

It was a good political season to be an incumbent and a bad one to be a challenger, according to campaign reports for Orange County candidates filed through June 30.

In the county assessor’s race, Deputy Assessor David J. Holbert spent $223,564 on his losing campaign against Assessor Bradley L. Jacobs. Almost all of that--$221,740--came from loans he made to his own campaign. He also received $2,924 in contributions and ended the race with $1,100 in cash on hand. Meanwhile, Jacobs, who was reelected, received $25,127 through June 30, spent $29,774 and had $85 in cash on hand. Though he spent more money than he took in, Jacobs had more money on hand from the previous reporting period.

In the sheriff-coroner’s race, Sheriff Brad Gates, who was reelected, wound up his campaign with $82,996 cash on hand, according to his report through June 30. He also reported receipts of $108,135 in contributions and expenses of $192,785. His challengers, Patrol Sgt. Linda Lea Calligan and Municipal Court Judge Bobby D. Youngblood, have failed to file by the July 31 deadline.

In the race for 4th District supervisor, former congressman Jerry Patterson, who came in third, made personal loans to his losing campaign that totaled $90,000, according to the campaign report he filed July 31. His second loan for $45,000--received May 21, about two weeks before the primary--was co-signed by leading Orange County Democrats Howard Adler, Mark Lee, Richard J. O’Neill and Michael Ray. Through June 30, Patterson received $79,138 in contributions and spent $207,702 on his campaign, the report showed. He reported outstanding debts of $133,012.

City of Orange Mayor James H. Beam and Anaheim Mayor Donald R. Roth, who made the runoff for 4th District supervisor, fared only a little better financially than did Patterson. Beam reported contributions through June 30 of $219,654, expenses of $310,318 and an outstanding debt of $130,949. Roth reported $170,104 in total contributions through June 30, $293,555 in expenses and an outstanding debt of $40,385. He also reported that he forgave a personal loan of $45,000 he made to his campaign.

In most of Orange County’s Assembly races, the Republican incumbents reported sizable war chests, while their Democratic challengers reported either minimal contributions or did not file at all.

Still, two races shaped up as financially competitive, campaign reports showed. In the 71st Assembly District, incumbent Doris Allen (R-Cypress) reported contributions through June 30 of $24,900, expenses of $13,565 and cash on hand of $45,132. Her Democratic challenger, attorney Mark Rosen of Garden Grove, reported $40,467 in contributions through June 30, $23,895 in expenses, $19,000 in cash on hand and $7,000 in debts.

The other fierce contest was in the 72nd Assembly District, where Santa Ana Mayor Daniel E. Griset, a Democrat, and Realtor Richard E. Longshore, a Republican, are competing for an open seat. Griset reported $125,861 in contributions through June 30, $93,503 in expenses and $1,802 in cash on hand. Meanwhile, Republican Longshore of Anaheim who has run several times for the seat, reported $63,724 in contributions through June 30, $55,039 in expenses and $47,269 in cash on hand.

Staff writer Kenneth F. Bunting contributed to this story from Sacramento.