Cranston Won’t Return $48,000 Keating Raised

Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that he will not return the money collected for his 1986 reelection campaign by Charles H. Keating, owner of Irvine-based Lincoln Savings & Loan, even though two other senators have done so.

Cranston was responding to Sen. Dennis DeConcini’s decision, announced Monday, to return $48,000 in contributions collected for him by Keating. DeConcini and Cranston were among five senators who received money raised by Keating and later met with officials of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board on behalf of Lincoln.

DeConcini said he decided to give the money back after federal regulators filed a $1.1-million fraud and racketeering civil lawsuit against Keating last Friday. He said he did so because the suit “raises the serious possibility that money from Lincoln Savings may have been illegally funneled” into the campaigns of the senators.

The Arizona Democrat wrote personal checks to repay the money Tuesday.

But Cranston’s spokesman, Murray Flander, said the suit does nothing to change the position of the California senator, who has said that he did nothing illegal by accepting money raised by Keating. Cranston received $39,000 in campaign donations raised by Keating, who also contributed about $800,000 to voter registration drives supported by the senator.

“The money was contributed to Alan’s campaign in good faith and received in good faith,” said Flander. “The money has been all spent.”

Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.) received more than $76,000 in campaign contributions from executives and other employees of Lincoln but returned the money in 1988.

DeConcini spearheaded two meetings that the five senators had with federal regulators about Lincoln. Keating had asked the senators for their help after feuding with regulators for three years over the operation of Lincoln Savings, which since has gone bankrupt.

In addition to DeConcini, Cranston and Riegle, the other senators in attendance were Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Glenn (D-Ohio).

McCain has announced that he will return $112,000 raised for him by Keating if the court determines that the funds were illegal. Glenn has said that he has no plans to return any political contributions.