Spending Mounts in Race for Bradley Seat

The three top Republicans vying to fill the state Assembly seat left vacant with the death of Bill Bradley have already spent more than $270,000 in the short campaign, according to campaign reports filed with the secretary of state’s office and released Monday.

The reports, which disclose candidate fund raising and expenditures since Jan. 1, also show that the only Republican candidate in the race that is pro-choice on the abortion issue is drawing heavy financial support from outside the conservative district, as nurses, doctors and pro-choice groups throughout California and out of state pour thousands of dollars into the race.

Divvying Up Money

The biggest spender in the hotly contested Assembly race is Poway businessman Dick Lyles. Lyles has spent nearly $125,000 while taking in $73,550 in contributions through July 22, the reports show.

Patricia Hunter, a Bonita nurse serving her second term on the state Board of Nursing, came in second to Lyles by spending $81,401 by July 22--more than $80,500 of which was spent within the last month.

Hunter, the only pro-choice candidate among the Republicans, has raised $54,182, almost all of which came from nursing and pro-choice groups, such as the California Abortion Rights Action League of Santa Monica.

Third in spending was Poway City Councilwoman Linda Brannon, who has posted $74,000 in expenditures through July 22; all of the money was spent by Brannon in the last month, the reports show.

Brannon has also collected $70,480 in contributions, including donations from developers and a $40,000 loan that the councilwoman made to her own campaign.

The amount of money spent so far underscores the intensity of the contest to replace Bradley, who died June 1. Since 1982, Bradley had represented the overwhelmingly Republican 76th District, which stretches from northeastern San Diego County to the South Bay to the desert communities of Riverside County.

Testing the Waters

Since the special election will be held a week from today--before other legislative contests--it is also attracting national attention as one of the first tests of political muscle by abortion groups in the wake of the recent U. S. Supreme Court decision giving state legislatures added powers to regulate the practice.

Pro-choice groups are rallying around Hunter, pouring money into the campaign of the only Republican in the race who advocates abortion on demand.

Campaign statements show that a significant amount of Hunter’s $54,182 in contributions has come from outside of the district and, in some instances, the state.

Nurse and family-planning associations, as well as individual doctors and nurses from San Francisco, San Diego, Laguna Niguel, Westminster, Los Angeles, Pomona, Sacramento, Bakersfield, Las Vegas and Arlington, Tex., contributed money to Hunter, as well as those in Escondido and Bonita.

Brannon, who opposes publicly funded abortions, has received large contributions from developers and the political action committee representing California dentists. Brannon’s husband and his twin brother are both dentists at the same practice in Poway.

The California Dental PAC, according to the reports, has given Brannon $6,000 since June 30, and she has received donations of $500 or more from Pardee Construction, Fieldstone Co., Lusardi Construction Co. and Brehm Communities.

Some of Lyle’s major contributors were Marice Car’rie Vineyard & Winery of Temecula; the Culbertson Winery Corp. of Temecula; Spacenet Satellite Systems of Escondido; an executive with Bedford Properties of Lafayette, Calif., and El Dorado College in Oceanside.

Lyle, who has loaned his own campaign $28,300 since Jan. 1, has spent the most of his money on polling, printing and direct-mail costs.