Dinner Serves Up $1.5 Million More for Deukmejian

Gov. George Deukmejian, going to the well for the third time in 15 months, collected more than $1.5 million in campaign contributions Thursday night at a fund-raising dinner at the Century Plaza hotel.

The $1,000-a-plate dinner, attended by longtime Republicans and loyal Deukmejian supporters, gives the GOP governor a campaign bank account of more than $10 million--about 10 times that of his Democratic rival, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

Deukmejian, whose lead in the polls slipped again this week, used the occasion to attack Bradley on his home turf, repeating charges that the mayor is a big spender and is soft on crime.

“He wants to spend more, cut the reserve and take us back to bankruptcy,” Deukmejian charged. “But the people’s answer is ‘Hell, no, we won’t go.’ ”

Outside the hotel, more than 200 residents of East Los Angeles, chanting “No prison in East L.A.,” protested the governor’s position that a new state prison should be built in their community.

“We are hoping the governor will hear our voices and take into consideration that we will not give up,” said Lucy Ramos, a leader of the protest.

An estimated 1,400 people turned out for the dinner--100 more than attended a similar banquet hosted by President Reagan at the Century Plaza Sunday night. That affair grossed $1.5 million for GOP Senate candidate Ed Zschau.

“We’re just very, very pleased with the result,” said Deukmejian finance director Karl Samuelian, “especially in light of the formidable competition with President Reagan at the same hotel just four days ago.”

In just three dinners in Century City, Deukmejian has raised more than $5.25 million for his reelection effort.

Last March, the governor raised $1.75 million at a Century Plaza dinner. And in June, 1985, he set a statewide political fund-raising record by taking in $2 million at a banquet at the hotel.

Samuelian said the latest fund-raiser relied on three major groups backing the governor: loyal supporters who have helped Deukmejian since 1981 when he was an underdog seeking the gubernatorial nomination; members of the “Republican faithful” who signed on with the governor after he won the nomination in 1982, and Deukmejian’s fellow Armenian-Americans who have long helped bankroll his political ambitions.