A First for Cranston--He’s Trailing in Fund Raising

For the first time in four election campaigns, Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston is not raising as much money as his Republican opponent.

New federal reports show that Cranston’s opponent this year, Rep. Ed Zschau of Los Altos, has raised $4.6 million just since July 1. That is more than Cranston has raised since January.

Cranston has pulled in $4.5 million since the first of the year, $2 million of that since July 1. He also raised $3.3 million last year and $300,000 in 1984 for a total of $8.1 million in his quest for a fourth Senate term.

Zschau raised $3 million for his primary effort and another $600,000 in the month after the primary, putting his total for the race at $8.2 million.

Surprisingly, Zschau is also raising more money from political action committees than Cranston. The committees often are reluctant to shortchange incumbents, particularly those like Cranston, who is the No. 2 Democratic leader in the Senate. But since January, Zschau has pulled in more than $776,000 from the political action committees, compared to $648,000 for Cranston.

Although Cranston leads Zschau in recent polls, the latest contribution reports show why Zschau, a favorite of many of California’s corporate leaders, was the Republican who worried Cranston most in the crowded GOP primary.

Never has the senator, one of the top Democratic fund-raisers in the country, faced this kind of competition in the money-raising game that fuels modern political campaigns.

In 1980, for example, Cranston raised about $3 million and did not even spend it all in shellacking his Republican opponent, tax gadfly Paul Gann, who spent $1.7 million.

Cranston needed only $1.3 million to whip his 1974 Republican opponent, state Sen. H. L. Richardson of Glendora. Richardson spent a total of $700,000. When Cranston first won election to the Senate in 1968, he raised nearly $1 million to opponent Max Rafferty’s $500,000.

Zschau’s ability to raise $5 million since July 1 also buries a theory that has made the rounds among political insiders since the early summer:

When Cranston aggressively put Zschau on the defensive right after the primary, many insiders speculated that the negative press coverage Zschau received would hurt his fund raising.

Not only did Cranston’s summer attacks not set back Zschau’s fund raising, but the congressman raised more than enough to mount a $2.5-million TV ad attack of his own in September, outspending Cranston on television by 2 to 1 that month.

A recent California Poll showed that the Zschau attacks apparently had an impact, as Cranston’s lead over Zschau dropped from 13 points in early September to five points in early October.

However, Zschau did not gain much in the latest Field Poll. Instead, the number of undecided voters went up, indicating that the TV ad battles of the two candidates are probably creating confusion.

Cranston and Zschau expect to raise and spend more than $10 million each by the Nov. 4 election. That will make this Senate race the most expensive in California history and second in the country to the $25 million spent in North Carolina in 1984, when Republican Sen. Jesse Helms turned back a challenge by former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt.