Initiative on Campaigns to Get Attention : 7 Will Decide Use of Unruh Fund

During the year before his death, state Treasurer Jesse Unruh offered to spend part of his $1.3-million campaign fund to subsidize a statewide initiative to enact public financing of campaigns, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown said Tuesday.

Unruh, a master fund-raiser and long-time advocate of public financing for campaigns, discussed with supporters a variety of proposals for spending the money, including setting up a nonprofit foundation to control the funds.

Elizabeth Whitney, a long-time Unruh aide and acting state treasurer, said spending the campaign funds on a public financing initiative was “high on his list.” The decision on how to spend the money will be made by seven trustees--including Whitney--named by Unruh before his death Aug 4.

“Everyone is going to have their own version of what Jess told them,” Whitney added.

During a Capitol press conference, Brown said Unruh “discussed the need to achieve some form of public financing for political campaigns. He saw the need for me to be prepared if necessary to lead an initiative. . . . And he made it clear that I should be prepared even in his absence to call upon the foundation he left in place for financial assistance.”

Brown and other advocates of public financing have been unsuccessful in winning approval of legislation that would limit campaign contributions and spending while giving candidates public funds to help pay for their campaigns.

“There is not now the political will to achieve that,” Brown said. “It may be the initiative process may have to be invoked.”

A coalition of business leaders and public interest groups, including Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, is on the verge of qualifying such an initiative for the ballot in 1988, Common Cause lobbyist Walter Zelman said.

Discussions With Unruh

Zelman said that he too had discussions with Unruh about supporting the initiative and that the treasurer talked in general terms of contributing several hundred thousand dollars. “He talked about wanting to help us in a substantial way,” Zelman said.

Unruh was sometimes criticized for using heavy-handed methods to extract contributions from the business community, and Zelman acknowledged that there would be some irony in accepting Unruh’s money for the campaign reform initiative.

On another matter, Brown said he is affiliated with a Century City law firm and has rented an apartment in Los Angeles that he will share several days a week with his daughter.

The San Francisco Democrat, who last year reported making at least $140,000 from his law practice, said he will be “of counsel” to Margolis, Ryan, Burrill & Besser.

Philip Ryan, once associated with Brown’s San Francisco law firm and now a partner in the Century City firm, said the firm specializes in representing members of the entertainment industry. In their new relationship, Ryan said, the firm and Brown will refer clients to each other and, in some cases, will work together to represent specific clients.

In the past, some of the clients of Brown’s San Francisco law firm, including Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp., have posed potential conflicts of interest for the Speaker as they pursued legislation in Sacramento. Ryan said none of Brown’s Los Angeles clients would create such problems.

“The fact is Willie Brown will not be involved in any matters affecting clients that have an interest in issues before the Legislature,” Ryan said.

Brown, who maintains residences in San Francisco and Sacramento, said he will share an apartment with his daughter, Susan, who has just begun graduate school at USC.