PACs Divide Funds Between Cranston, Zschau

Forty-two special interest groups have contributed money to both candidates in the fiercely contested U.S. Senate race in California, a Times study found Monday, but the groups denied suggestions that their unusual double-giving means that they are simply hedging their bets.

Pacific Lighting Corp.’s political action committee donated the $10,000 legal maximum to Rep. Ed Zschau (R-Los Altos) but also chipped in $6,000 to the man he is trying to unseat, Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.).

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.’s PAC donated $2,000 to Cranston and $1,000 to Zschau. The Los Angeles law firm of O’Melveny & Myers gave Cranston $4,500 and Zschau $2,000. Even the American Electronics Assn., which contributed $5,000 to its former chairman, Zschau, gave $250 to Cranston.

According to the latest filings at the Federal Election Commission, the double-giving list is a long one, and contributors range from the California Almond Growers Exchange and Handgun Control Inc. to the Mortgage Bankers Assn. and Rockwell International Corp.

Overall, the totals are running about even: $114,000 for Cranston, $118,000 for Zschau.

Common Cause President Fred Wertheimer, noting that his self-designated “citizens lobby” had found similar patterns in other Senate races, asserted that “double-giving PACs want to be assured of access in January no matter which candidate wins in November.”

Officials with the Cranston and Zschau campaigns agreed, though Zschau spokesman Sandy Conlan saw it as particularly good news for her boss.

“When PACs feel a challenger is likely to beat an incumbent, they will hedge their bets by donating to both campaigns. This is a good sign for us,” Conlan said.

Cranston campaign manager Darry Sragow said that PACs “are giving to both sides in the race because, that way, they get to support the winner.”

Spokesmen for PACs, however, rejected such explanations. Several said they merely liked the positions taken by both candidates on policies important to their groups. Some said they wanted to help Zschau win the Republican primary election but favored Cranston in the general. Others said they switched from Cranston to Zschau after the GOP primary. Still others said their split in PAC contributions reflected a division in the political loyalties of their employees, whose donations to company PACs are distributed to candidates.

When pressed, however, several PAC representatives acknowledged that giving to both sides could prove beneficial after the Nov. 4 election.

“Have we got our bases covered?” asked Jane DeMarines of the Mortgage Bankers Assn., which gave $4,000 to Cranston, $1,000 to Zschau. “I guess you could say that.”

“Generally speaking, it’s a problem not to give money to an incumbent and have him win,” said Vincent P. Reusing, Metropolitan Life’s vice president for government relations. He said Cranston, a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, had helped insurance companies fend off attempts by banks to sell insurance. On the other hand, Metropolitan considers Zschau generally “more business-oriented.”

“You hate to split your PAC money that way but, in that particular case, it was the only thing to do,” Reusing said.

The California Almond Growers Exchange gave $3,000 to Cranston before Zschau won the GOP nomination last June, then donated $5,000 to Zschau in August. Exchange official Steven Easter said the group might have given Cranston more but had soured on his farm policies, especially after he supported Proposition 65, the initiative to tighten regulations on toxic chemicals, including pesticides and fertilizers. Zschau opposes the measure.

Handgun Control Inc. contributed $1,000 to Zschau in the primary because he was one of the few Republicans who actively helped the lobbying group oppose major federal legislation relaxing curbs on guns. But the group also gave $1,000 to Cranston because he has “always been supportive of what we have done,” said Mary Louise Westmoreland, legislative director of the group.

Officials of Rockwell International, BankAmerica Corp. and Hughes Aircraft Co. claimed that their PACs donated to both candidates to reflect the wishes of their employees.

“There’s a group that favors Zschau and a group that likes Cranston,” said Jim Hurt, director of the Hughes PAC, which has given $7,000 to Zschau and $2,000 to Cranston.

BankAmerica lobbyist Fred J. Martin Jr., whose PAC gave $5,000 to each candidate, said the contributions were “not meant to purchase anything. . . . I’ve never had a problem with access to a Californian. We’re showing good faith in the electoral process.”

Despite supporting former chairman Zschau with $5,000, the American Electronics Assn. gave $250 to Cranston in the Democratic primary because “he has been helpful to us over the years, and we’ve promised him we will always say so,” its Washington lobbyist, Kenneth Hagerty, said. “In the general election, we have only been on one side, and we have been up front with the Cranston people about that.”