Building Interests Gave a Third of Wieder’s Recent Donations

Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, under attack in the 42nd Congressional District race for accepting campaign contributions from developers, got about a third of the money she raised between April 1 and May 18 from development and real estate interests, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Of the $92,308 raised in the reporting period, about $32,500 came from builders, contractors and real estate interests. Employees of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, developer of South Coast Plaza, gave $4,500 of that amount and the political action committee of the National Assn. of Homebuilders contributed $5,000.

In the same time period, one of Wieder’s opponents in the 42nd District Republican primary, Stephen Horn of Long Beach, received about 11% of his contributions from donors in development and real estate. That included $1,000 from Michael J. Choppin of I.D.M. Corp. of Long Beach and $2,000 from MUNCO of Long Beach, which operates commercial and industrial buildings.

Horn did not list occupations on his report to the Federal Election Commission for another 12% of his contributions. Wieder failed to list occupations for less than 5% of her contributors on her FEC report.

The deadline for congressional candidates to file FEC reports on their most recent campaign fund raising was Thursday.

Horn and Andrew Littlefair of Torrance, another of Wieder’s GOP opponents in the heated race for the seat being vacated by Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), have repeatedly claimed that Wieder is influenced by developers in her votes as a supervisor.

Littlefair, who raised $96,556 in the last reporting period, had not made his list of individual contributors available to the press by Friday. However, developer Ray Watt sponsored a major fund-raiser for Littlefair in the reporting period ending May 18.

Littlefair was the first of Wieder’s 42nd District opponents to capitalize on the slow-growth movement in Orange County by criticizing her voting record. He sent out a mailer accusing Wieder, a board member since 1978, of taking $160,000 in campaign contributions from developers since 1980.

Wieder’s third major Republican opponent in the heavily GOP district, Dana Rohrabacher, listed virtually no money from developer and real estate interests on his most recent FEC report, although many of his contributors were not defined by occupation. He raised $44,576 in the most recent reporting period.