Occidental Funds Nearly All of Drive for Beach Drilling

Occidental Petroleum Corp. has pumped $360,000--nearly nine out of 10 dollars raised by the proponents--into a Los Angeles city initiative campaign that would clear the way for the company’s controversial plan to drill for oil along the Pacific Palisades coastline.

New campaign finance reports also show that after spending more than $1 million on a failed bid to trounce a field of challengers in the June primary, incumbent Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich is left with only $134,000 as he adjusts his campaign apparatus and heads into what is expected to be a tough November runoff with rival Baxter Ward.

In the oil-drilling controversy, backers of the pro-drilling initiative have sought to attract broad public support by promoting their measure as one that would generate needed funds for police, parks and toxic waste cleanup programs.

But the new reports show the lion’s share of the $410,000 raised so far for the initiative to permit drilling has come from Occidental.

Confuse Voters

In what is already a bitter, expensive campaign, the proposal is competing directly for votes with a rival November measure placed on the ballot by anti-drilling forces attempting to block Occidental’s proposal. Drilling foes, who fear the oil company-backed initiative will confuse voters, said the campaign finance figures were not surprising.

“This is a front for Occidental Petroleum. They stand to profit from the passage of their initiative. . . . It’s laughable on its face,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, a probable mayoral candidate and sponsor of the rival anti-drilling initiative.

Attorney Mickey Kantor, representing the pro-drilling forces, charged that the campaign spending reports show the anti-drilling forces are not broadly based. The anti-drilling initiative has received nearly $200,000 in loans from Yaroslavsky and Councilman Marvin Braude, who both represent the Westside, as well as about $100,000 in smaller contributions.

A number of the larger donors are Hollywood celebrities, including actors Richard Chamberlain, James Garner, Walter Matthau and Robert Redford, as well as residents of exclusive areas in the hills above the proposed drilling site.

“It’s Zev and Marvin (Braude) and a small group of folks who are trying to preserve their enclave, their sacrosanct neighborhood,” Kantor said.

But Yaroslavsky said the anti-drilling campaign has collected petition signatures and about 2,000 small contributions across the city.

After qualifying their initiatives earlier this summer, the reports show neither side with much cash on hand--about $5,700 for the anti-drilling forces and $53,000 for the pro-drilling group. While both sides refused to forecast what they will spend on the fall campaign, both have access to sizable sources of funds.

Yaroslavsky and Braude have several hundred thousand dollars in campaign funds still available, and many observers believe that after 20 years of fighting, Occidental will spend heavily to finally win the issue.

In the runoff race in the 5th Supervisorial District, Antonovich, after a costly but disappointing campaign in the spring, is moving to replenish his coffers for a head-to-head rematch with Ward, who he ousted in a bitter 1980 contest.

As in the primary, Antonovich is expected to outspend Ward, who is courting the vote-rich, grass-roots, slow-growth movement in Antonovich’s Pasadena-to-Newhall district. Ward has sought to make Antonovich’s large campaign contributions from developers a major issue.

Ward, who took no contributions in the primary but is now taking limited donations, reported having only $4,500 in campaign cash on hand in the latest report. Ward campaign workers said a number of small fund-raisers are planned in private homes.

Antonovich will hold his first fund-raiser of the runoff Thursday night--a $135-per-plate dinner in San Gabriel--and another larger fete planned for September. Some of Antonovich’s own allies and financial supporters say the primary campaign, for all the money spent, did not appear to be effective, aggressive enough or well managed.

“He really felt he had no problem, and he was going to be reelected in the primary,” said Supervisor Deane Dana, a fellow conservative Republican. “He did not have a campaign manager. . . . I disagreed.”

Dana and some development industry allies said they are more confident about the campaign organization today, but one Republican political consultant not associated with the campaign said, “A lot of people are real worried.”