Donations to Holden Dry Up in Mayor’s Race

When Nate Holden challenged Mayor Tom Bradley’s choice for a City Council seat in 1987, campaign funds were hard to find.

But as soon as Holden won his upset victory, he had his fund-raisers call the land developers, attorneys and financial institutions who do business with City Hall. This time, the contributors were more friendly. From June 4, 1987, just after his election, through November, 1988, Holden raised $376,504 for his political action committee.

His membership on the City Council had earned him consideration among contributors, who know the importance of a single vote on the 15-member council. But that consideration evaporated when he decided to run against Bradley, mayor for 16 years and a favorite of Los Angeles business interests.

Few Replying

This time, power is with the mayor, and few contributors are replying to Holden’s phone calls with checks.

“They are just saying they don’t want to give me money now,” Holden said in an interview. “They are with the mayor; they are not hedging their bets at all.”

The way the flow of money went from a trickle to a flood and back to a trickle is a sign of how contributors respect power. It also shows how contributors hate to support an underdog.

As a result, Holden enters the final days before Tuesday’s election vulnerable to a windup assault from the mayor, who has plenty of money to finance radio ads, mailings, banks of telephone solicitors and a door-to-door get-out-the-vote campaign. Bradley does not plan to have television commercials in a campaign he is strongly favored to win.

As of March 25, Bradley had $1,085,861 on hand for the mayoral campaign.

Holden had just $67,252, according to reports filed with the city clerk.

The law prevents Holden from using the much larger amount of money he raised just after his council race and before he decided to run for mayor. The political action committee money he has on hand can be used only for indirect politics, such as donating to churches, financing scholarships and helping schools.

Holden, however, managed to give himself a huge political boost with his political action committee money. He used it to pay $300 for each assault rifle someone turned in to police. He paid for 116, and it brought him national publicity just as he was beginning his campaign against Bradley.

Helps Candidates

Walter Zelman, who heads Common Cause in California, said such use of political action committees helps candidates in elections. Holden, however, said “I wouldn’t say it is political.”

An interviewer noted that the rifle purchases helped him politically.

“Well, it (political help) was an offshoot,” Holden said. “But I would have done it whether I was running or not.”

A Times Poll analysis of the big flow of contributions to the Holden political action committee showed that business interests began contributing large amounts of money to the councilman after his election.

The law firm of Lewis, D’amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard, which Holden said represents clients before municipal bodies, gave his political action committee $5,000 in one donation, compared to $2,500 given before the election in five separate donations over a period of several months.

Another $5,000 came from the Smile Care Dental Group, compared to $500 before the election. Century West Development Corp. gave a $10,000 post-election donation, as did ASR Development Co.

Donated Funds

Kemper Builders Inc., developer Jerome H. Snyder and the Wilshire Courtyard were among those who gave $5,000. Homestead Group Associates, involved in the real estate business, donated $7,500 after the election.

With Holden assuming chairmanship of the Transportation Committee, which supervises taxicab regulation, he received $14,500 in post-City Council election donations from cab companies.

SIMILAR CONTRIBUTORS Although Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley has raised much more money than City Councilman Nate Holden, his best-financed opponent, in the mayoral campaign, the nature of their contributors has been similar over the last few years. Both have drawn heavily on real estate interests, financial houses and attorneys, all categories of people that often deal with City Hall. That is the conclusion of a Times Poll survey of Bradley and Holden contributors for the current race and from past fund-raising solicitations. DONORS BY RACE

WHITE BLACK ASIAN OTHER NO ANSWER Bradley 55% 18% 9% 1% 17% Holden 46% 19% 11% 0% 24%

CONTRIBUTORS EARNING $80,000 A YEAR OR MORE Bradley 42% Holden: 43% CONTRIBUTORS DOING BUSINESS WITH THE CITY Bradley:26% Holden: 30% BUSINESS CATEGORIES OF DONORS Real Estate Bradley: 17% Holden: 29% Finance Bradley: 10% Holden: 11% Attorneys Bradley: 11% Holden: 9% Services Bradley: 11% Holden: 13% Entertainment and Sports Bradley: 5% Holden: 1% Contributions studied include those from: Bradley’s 1982 and 1986 gubernatorial campaigns and his 1985 and current campaigns for mayor; Holden’s 1987 election to the City Council and his current campaign for mayor, as well as a political action committee, which is barred by law from providing money for his own campaigns.

Research by the Times Poll and researcher Cecilia Rasmussen