Song’s Donor List Creates a Dispute in 10th District

Several journalists officially listed as campaign donors to Arthur Song Jr., one of the leading candidates in the hotly contested 10th District Los Angeles City Council race, said Friday that they had not contributed funds for anyone in Tuesday’s election.

The race for the open seat, representing the Southwest and some midcity areas, has been one of the most intense among the seven council seats up for grabs.

Song, who has collected more than $110,000 in the race--the third highest total among 13 10th District candidates on the ballot--confirmed Friday that some journalists at a Korean community newspaper may not have donated to his campaign as reported.

In its latest filing with the city, Song’s campaign staff reported that the Korea Times, a combined Korean-and-English language newspaper, had donated $500 toward his election--the maximum allowed per donor under the city’s campaign contribution law.

Also listed were another $2,000 in $250 donations to Song from eight reporters and editors of the newspaper. But one of those reporters told the Los Angeles Times Friday that she did not contribute any money to the Song campaign.

“When I discovered I was listed as a contributor I was shocked and furious,” said Sophia Kim, a general assignment reporter. “I called up Mr. Song immediately to demand that my name be taken off. He was surprised himself. He said he didn’t know how it happened, and he promised to clear my name.”

Another reporter, Kuen Chull Yoo, also said he did not contribute $250 although his name was listed.

A source close to the journalists said others were equally surprised when their names appeared. However, the other reporters and editors could not be reached for comment or referred questions to their editor-in-chief, Pyong Yong Min.

Min, who was also listed as a contributor, said he could only speak for himself and that he did make a $250 contribution to Song. He said the paper’s publisher, Jae Min Chen, was in Korea and unavailable for comment.

Asked if the Korea Times supported Song’s candidacy, Min said the paper does not endorse candidates. But he added: “He is Korean. We are Korean. As well as possible, we want to support him.”

It was not clear where the money came from, if the journalists did not make the contributions. But under city law, a corporation is limited to a $500 donation in a City Council race and cannot disguise any additional corporate contributions through its employees.

Song, who had just arrived from New York where he had been raising funds in the Korean community there, acknowledged Friday that Kim had called him to complain about her bogus contribution and that he shared her concern--especially since she was a journalist whose ethical standards may be compromised with a political donation.

“I’m just as confused as she is,” said Song who is making his first try for elective office. “Something might have slipped by us. I’m trying to get to the bottom of this myself. If there are errors, we will correct them.”

Song, a Korean-American lawyer backed by Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo, has raised substantial funds in the Asian-American community to pay for one of the most prolific direct-mail efforts of the campaign.

Direct mail has been a key campaign tool in the district, and it is expected to intensify this weekend. Already, candidates have sought to revive the controversial “carpetbagging” charge against some of the perceived front-runners in the 10th District.

In one new mailing, candidate Kenneth Orduna sought to portray three of his opponents--Homer Broome Jr., Myrlie Evers and Nate Holden--as outsiders who recently moved into the district in order to run for office.

Orduna’s four-page tabloid concentrates on stories about a lawsuit filed against the trio challenging their residency requirements. The defendants, however, have questioned the legitimacy of the organization filing the lawsuit. And Orduna himself, who spent the last four years as the Washington chief of staff for Rep. Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton), has been accused of being a carpetbagger.

“It’s a for-real charge against them,” said candidate Geneva Cox, a 27-year resident of the district who is a one-time field deputy for former Councilman David Cunningham. “And a lot of people resent it.”

The carpetbagging charge has also been leveled by Song and other candidates on the ballot including Jessie Mae Beavers, Jordan Daniels Jr., Denise Fairchild, Esther M. Lofton, Grover P. Walker, Willam A. Weaver and Ramona Raquel Whitney.

A 14th candidate, Michael Schaefer, is listed as a write-in candidate by the city. Schaefer is a former San Diego City Councilman and millionaire Los Angeles slumlord who last year was ordered by a Superior Court to pay $1.83 million in damages to tenants of his dilapidated mid-Wilshire apartment building.

Meanwhile, in the 6th District council race, challenger Ruth Galanter Friday drew attention to incumbent Pat Russell’s controversial association with lobbyist Curtis Rossiter.

Galanter proposed that lobbyists like Rossiter, with business pending before the city, be barred from working at the same time for city officials, such as Russell. Galanter said the prohibition would plug a loophole in the city’s current law regulating lobbyists.

Galanter said that Russell is “apparently blind to a very basic conflict of interest” in her dealings with Rossiter, a lobbyist for major corporate interests in the 6th District that have sought and received Russell’s approval for development plans. During the same period that Rossiter has represented those interests, he has served as a campaign consultant to Russell.

Galanter described Russell’s association with Rossiter as “absolutely scandalous.”

Russell has denied that there is any conflict of interest in hiring Rossiter as a political consultant or in “talking with him on a project that he’s dealing with.” She said that her decisions as a councilwoman have always been based “on the merits.”