L.A. Stumping Pays Off for N.Y.’s Dinkins

Why did he come to Los Angeles? New York City mayoral candidate David N. Dinkins pondered the question and found his answer in the words of that philosopher-bank robber, Willie Sutton.

“He was asked why he robbed banks,” Dinkins, a Democrat who is seeking to become the first black mayor of New York, deadpanned before a chuckling audience late Saturday in Baldwin Hills.

“Because that’s where the money is.”

So, a month before Election Day, clutching a robust 25-point lead in the polls, his opponent’s campaign on the rocks but theoretically capable of a resurgence, Dinkins swept into Los Angeles Friday night.

By the time he left town Sunday afternoon, he had collected--by his conservative guess--nearly $250,000, quite a nice chunk of change even by Willie Sutton’s standards. Once again, the glitterati of politics and entertainment had wielded Los Angeles’ most potent political tool--money.

Possible Risks

But opting to drop one’s campaign and fly across the country to socialize and collect checks can have its risks, as Dinkins found out Sunday. As he was preparing for a fund-raising brunch at the Bel-Air home of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, word came from New York that three teen-agers leaving a Jewish student center at Brooklyn College had been set upon by a gang of up to 20 white men, shouting ethnic slurs. One 19-year-old victim suffered a fractured skull and another a ruptured spleen and leg fractures.

Dinkins, who has cast himself as the candidate of conciliation in racially polarized New York, found himself forced to comfort New Yorkers long distance. Aides hastily called a press conference and Dinkins left the brunch long enough to issue a short statement.

“Once again, marauding hoodlums have wreaked their unspeakable horror on us,” he declared of the attack, which occurred on the eve of the solemn Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. “All decent New Yorkers share the pain of these families. . . . We pledge that no efforts will be spared in finding and prosecuting the perpetrators of this terrible crime.”

Trip Beneficial

Aside from that incident, however, Dinkins found that his trip west was exceedingly beneficial to his $3.6-million general election campaign against his Republican opponent, former U.S. Atty. Rudolph W. Giuliani.

On Friday night, at a private Los Angeles fund-raiser organized by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), Dinkins came away with $100,000. At least the same amount--and potentially much more--found its way to his campaign coffers the following night during a dinner at the Baldwin Hills home of prominent Democratic fund-raiser Bondie Gambrell.

As the amber lights of the city twinkled below Gambrell’s lush home, more than 500 Democrats dropped checks ranging from $100 to $3,000--the maximum allowed under New York City’s campaign financing law.

Guests milled around Gambrell’s pool and basketball court as politicians and political hopefuls networked. Three Democratic candidates for state insurance chief--former broadcaster Bill Press, former Common Cause director Walter Zelman and state Board of Equalization member Conway Collis--worked for votes, each avoiding the other with tight choreography until they were coerced into a group photo with Dinkins.

Councilmen Worked Crowd

Los Angeles City Councilmen Michael Woo and Nate Holden also massaged the crowd. Mayor Tom Bradley, who was receiving an award in Sacramento, was not able to attend.

Dinkins himself dispensed with the issues--he alluded to “crime and drugs and homelessness” in only one sentence of his speech--and made only passing and nameless reference to Giuliani.

Names of prominent white and Jewish leaders, as well as blacks, lined the invitation to the fund-raiser. But the crowd was overwhelmingly black, as supportive of Dinkins for their shared background as for his politics.

“This is what Tom Bradley was, 15 years ago,” said one attendee.

Dinkins, as he has in his campaign, took pains to reach out to other groups. So far that approach has worked for him, while Guiliani has stumbled and been accused of sharpening racial differences among New Yorkers.

“If one person says he will not vote for you because you are a black or Jewish, that’s bigotry,” the Democratic nominee told guests. But he insisted that voting for him because he is black was a proper display of racial pride.

“I would never have gotten to first base (without black support),” he said. “I also need you to understand that I can’t win with African-Americans alone.”

Nor New Yorkers alone. Less than 12 hours later, Dinkins was traveling the winding road to Gordy’s hilltop estate in Bel-Air, where gurgling fountains, a panoramic view of West Los Angeles--and donations--awaited him.