Candidacy Uncertain : Birthday Bash Swells Robbins’ Election Fund

With more than two years to go before state Sen. Alan Robbins faces reelection, his campaign coffers topped $1 million Thursday as his annual theatrical birthday fund-raiser netted about $175,000.

At the same time, the 15-year Senate veteran said in an interview that he has wearied of the Sacramento commute he has made about 750 times and is undecided about seeking another four-year term in 1990.

The Van Nuys Democrat said he aspires eventually to run for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s post but will not challenge Antonovich, who is seeking another four-year term this year.

And, although Robbins maintains that his hefty campaign bankroll allows him to exercise independence from party leaders, he said he has decided not to make good on an earlier threat to bolt the party and re-register as an independent.

Robbins celebrated his 45th birthday with about 550 friends and supporters who paid $500 to dine at the Palace restaurant in Hollywood and take in the Tony-award-winning show “Me and My Girl” at the Pantages Theatre Thursday evening.

Such fetes have become traditional for Robbins, one of the Legislature’s most prolific fund-raisers. Besides the birthday dinner and show, his campaign committee raises money by sponsoring an annual cruise to destinations such as Alaska and Jamaica. Critics have said that these trips give special-interest contributors extraordinary access to lobby Robbins.

Missed Last Trip

That was not the case last year, however. Robbins missed his fund-raising, 10-day voyage through the Panama Canal because of an emergency legislative session called to approve Los Angeles earthquake relief. The voyage netted about $35,000.

“Alan is ingenious in the things he does,” said state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), who attended Thursday’s fete as Robbins’ guest. “Most of us are much more prosaic than that.”

Robbins, whose heavy-duty fund-raising continues despite his not having faced a serious election challenge since 1982, has also shown a penchant for unorthodox use of campaign funds, which has attracted recent scrutiny.

His deployment of campaign dollars, including money raised by his birthday-dinner committee, is the subject of an inquiry by the state attorney general’s office, prompted by January news accounts that the lawmaker had lent hundreds of thousands of dollars to associates in real estate.

“The review is ongoing,” Duane Peterson, a spokesman for the attorney general, said Thursday.

State election law does not prohibit the use of campaign funds as loans. But the law does ban personal use of the money if it “creates a substantial personal benefit and does not have more than a negligible political, legislative or governmental purpose.”

Robbins said the loans were not used for transactions in which he was involved and that no benefit accrued to him.

Although maintaining that he did nothing wrong, Robbins announced that, to avoid misinterpretation, he will no longer lend campaign funds to business associates. All the loans to business partners have been repaid, Robbins’ committees reported.

In those statements, filed with the state, his birthday-dinner committee also reported it had $485,500 in cash as of Jan. 1 and his campaign committee $369,420. Another $20,000 was owed to the committees.

Robbins’ fund-raising is greatly enhanced by his position as chairman of the influential Senate Insurance, Claims and Corporations Committee. This panel is considered a “juice committee”--a term used in political circles to suggest that committee members have the clout to lure contributions from industries whose interests they oversee.

“Obviously, chairing a powerful committee in Sacramento is of great assistance to anyone’s fund-raising,” Robbins said. But, he added, “I probably receive a higher percentage of my contributions from the local area I represent than any other member of the Legislature.”

Robbins, an attorney and a principal in many lucrative real-estate ventures, was noncommittal when asked whether he intends to run for a fifth Senate term in 1990.

“I honestly haven’t decided,” he said. He was reelected in 1986 with only token opposition.

Robbins said his high-powered fund-raising serves several purposes: It allows him to donate about $15,000 a year to community groups or for voter initiatives, discourages potential opponents, prepares him to mount a well-financed supervisorial campaign if incumbent Antonovich fades from the picture and provides independence from party leaders.

More conservative than the Democratic majority and often a maverick, Robbins threatened to bolt the party and re-register as an independent after legislative setbacks last fall.

He said last week, however, that he had met with Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) to discuss their differences and had “resolved them to my satisfaction or agreed to proceed with them in a quieter manner.”