Elected State Officials Get Record Contributions of $33.5 Million During 1987

Elected state officials raised $33.5 million in campaign contributions during 1987, a record amount for a non-election year, according to a Fair Political Practices Commission report.

The report, which showed that state legislators alone collected more than $27 million, was released Wednesday, one month before voters are to decide whether to approve two rival initiatives on the June 7 ballot that would limit the size of campaign contributions.

The study showed, among other things, that three potential candidates for governor in 1990 raised more than $5.3 million last year.

More Than $2 Million

Gov. George Deukmejian, who has strongly hinted that he will run for a third term, collected $2.11 million, Controller Gray Davis raised $2.01 million and Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp collected $1.24 million. All three won election in 1986 to the jobs they hold now.

After expenditures, Deukmejian, Davis and Van de Kamp each finished 1987 with about $1 million in the bank.

Both Proposition 68 and Proposition 73 would restrict the amount that contributors could give to individual candidates and ban the transfer of campaign funds among candidates. However, Proposition 68 would apply only to legislative races, while Proposition 73 would apply to local, legislative and statewide campaigns.

Proposition 68 would provide public financing for candidates who agreed to adhere to spending limits. In contrast, Proposition 73 would prohibit public financing of any candidate for state or local office.

Among legislators, the biggest fund-raiser was Sen. Cecil Green (D-Norwalk), who won election in a hotly contested special election last year. He raised $2.24 million and spent $2.23 million of it, the report showed.

However, $1.1 million--half of all Green’s money--was contributed by Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) in the kind of transfer of campaign money that would be banned by both Propositions 68 and 73. Roberti himself was the second-most successful fund-raiser in the Senate, raising a total of $1.84 million.

Agnos Leads in Assembly

In the Assembly, the biggest money-raiser was Democratic Assemblyman Art Agnos, who was elected mayor of San Francisco last year. Agnos raised $1.95 million and spent $1.9 million.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) ranked second to Agnos with $1.72 million in campaign contributions. Third was Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk), who lost to Green in the special election for the Senate seat after raising $918,000.

$749,000 for Nolan

Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale collected $749,000 last year. Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), who was elected Senate Republican leader in mid-1987, raised $356,000.

Only one of the state’s 131 elected officials reported receiving no campaign contributions last year: Board of Equalization member William Bennett.

The $33.5-million total in campaign contributions (which does not include transfers among candidates) was an increase of $8.5 million over 1985, the last non-election year, in which state elected officials collected a total of $25 million.