Elected Officials Boost Donations to Aid Key Races Before Deadline

In their final campaign reports before the Nov. 8 election, legislators and other elected officials show that they are transferring substantial sums to key legislative races and ballot measure campaigns, according to records filed with the secretary of state on Friday.

Such transfers are permitted under current law, but those that aid specific candidates would be banned or severely limited next year under Proposition 73, the campaign spending initiative approved by voters in June.

“The transfers you are seeing right now are the last gasp of a system that will be gone next year,” said Robert M. Stern, co-director of the California Commission on Campaign Financing, which supports ending the practice of moving funds from committee to committee.

Brown Raises $560,597

Long a leading fund-raiser among legislators, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) reported raising $560,597 through his three campaign committees from Oct. 1 to Oct. 21, the latest reporting period, including large amounts from other Democratic legislators. At the same time, Brown’s committees transferred $364,208 to Assembly races--to challengers trying to unseat Republican incumbents and to Democrats facing tight races.

Similarly, Republican Gov. George Deukmejian transferred $300,000 to Target ‘88, a GOP-controlled political action committee that funnels money to Republican legislative candidates. The governor, while raising no new money in the October reporting period, also dipped into his $1-million campaign treasury to give $100,000 to the California Republican Party.

The latest campaign filings show that Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale continues to raise campaign funds at a pace far ahead of 1986, despite the disclosure that he is one of the targets of the FBI’s investigation into political corruption in the state Capitol.

For example, the Assembly Republican Political Action Committee raised $1,517,072 by Oct. 21, contrasted with $1,149,649 at the same time in the 1986 election cycle, an increase of 32%.

Grisham in Tight Race

The committee has given $93,445 to Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk), who is engaged in a tight reelection battle with Democratic challenger Bob Epple, who received $103,709 from “Assembly Democrats,” one of the committees run by Speaker Brown.

Both Brown and Nolan face internal challenges to their leadership and are trying to elect their allies and avoid losing contested seats to their enemies.

The leadership battles are a special incentive to transfer funds, according to Stern, who said: “If one side loses two or three seats that they are expected to win, you can expect a challenge to that side because they haven’t protected their members.”

Like their counterparts in the Assembly, Senate leaders are transfering large chunks of campaign gold to key races.

Roberti Loan

For example, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti of Los Angeles has given or loaned at least $248,789 to fellow Democrat Sen. Cecil N. Green of Norwalk, who is facing a serious challenge from Don Knabe.

For his part, Knabe, who is an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, had received at least $128,655 by Oct. 21 from the Senate Republican Political Action headed by GOP Senate Leader Ken Maddy of Fresno.

Incumbent officeholders are also giving or loaning large sums to promote ballot measures.

Roberti, for instance, has loaned $140,000 to proponents of Proposition 84, a $300-million bond issue to finance housing for the homeless. He also gave $20,000 from his campaign committee to backers of Proposition 97, which would restore vetoed funds for Cal/OSHA, the state worker safety program.

Brown gave $15,000 to the same pro-Proposition 97 committee, which reported raising $1,461,981. Most of the total came from labor unions and Democratic office holders, including $58,767 from Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and $5,000 from Controller Gray Davis.

Most of the candidates and many of the committees backing or opposing ballot measures have received sizable contributions from special interest groups.

Tobacco Firms Contribute

Opponents of Proposition 99, which would impose a 25 cent-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes, have reported raising $15,278,342, primarily from tobacco companies. In the latest reporting period, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco contributed $1.8 million to the anti-Proposition 99 campaign, bringing its total share to $6.7 million. Philip Morris U.S.A. gave $2.2 million for a total of $6.8 million.

The measure would use the added taxes for medical treatment, research, health education, park improvement and environmental protection. Its financial backers include the American Cancer Society, which has given the campaign $379,356, and the California Assn. of Hospitals and Health Systems, which gave $167,569.

Times staff writer Douglas Shuit contributed to this story.