Bradley Election Fund Shows Little Left Over

Despite an earlier prediction that he would have $1 million of his reelection campaign war chest left over for charities, Mayor Tom Bradley spent nearly all of his $2.6 million in contributions to narrowly defeat a group of poorly financed challengers last April, according to reports released Wednesday.

So far, Bradley’s reelection campaign has donated a total of $70,000 to two charity groups, the campaign statements show.

Bradley’s aides disclosed April 12--the day after the mayor avoided a runoff by a 2% margin--that he had decided not to spend any campaign contributions on expensive television advertising to defeat City Councilman Nate Holden and others.

Mayor’s Judgment

“The mayor made a conscious judgment early on that it wasn’t necessary and that he would rather give the money to charities than waste it on TV,” Deputy Mayor Michael Gage said at the time. Bradley and Gage estimated there would be more than $1 million for charity.

Since January, the Bradley campaign spent $1.9 million on radio ads, political consultants, accountants, a door-to-door get-out-the-vote campaign and expenses covering everything from sandwiches to stationery. In all, the mayor spent $2,627,792 on his reelection campaign, records show.

Holden, the mayor’s main challenger, raised only $232,189 and spent $226,723 to nearly force Bradley into a runoff. Bradley raised a total of $2,688,731 in contributions--most of it before January when his expected challenger, City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, dropped out of the mayor’s race. The mayor’s campaign fund has $347,843 in cash on hand, in large part due to interest and expense reimbursements, an aide said.

A Bradley spokesman, William Chandler, said he expects a portion of the money to be donated to charities. So far, Bradley has contributed $20,000 to an inner-city scholarship fund for high school graduates and $50,000 to his Mayor’s Corporate Challenge for Youth program to take 14,000 underprivileged children and parents to the circus on Tuesday night.

“The issue is not over,” Chandler said. “I can’t say for sure where the money will go or what organizations will receive contributions. That is still something being discussed.”

The campaign finance reports trickling into the city clerk’s office this week showed that City Councilman Ernani Bernardi, a long-time critic of fund raising and spending, won the council’s only runoff election despite spending nearly 20% less than his opponent.

Challenger’s Debt

Los Angeles City Fire Capt. Lyle Hall doled out $261,291 during the first six months of this year in his attempt to upset Bernardi, plunging his failed campaign $79,279 into debt, records show. Bernardi spent $210,815 this year to win the toughest reelection campaign of his career. It was by far the largest amount of money that the veteran 28-year councilman had ever spent on a reelection effort.

In the mayor’s race, Bradley’s campaign fund raising, as well as that of council members Joy Picus and Michael Woo, is the subject of an investigation by City Atty. James K. Hahn to determine whether contributions were made in violation of campaign limits.

Election laws make it illegal for any one contributor to give more than $1,000 to a mayoral candidate in any election, including money given through relatives, employees or others with the purpose of going to the same candidate. Firms and political action committees can give up to $2,500 and $5,000, respectively.

Times staff writers Stephanie Chavez, Paul Feldman and Tracy Wood and researcher Cecilia Rasmussen contributed to this article.