‘Keating 5’ Senators Activate Damage Control : Thrifts: Riegle and DeConcini pay for ads in home states while Cranston, McCain and Glenn respond to reporters, public in scandal over Irvine-based Lincoln S&L;.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Donald W. Riegle Jr., one of five lawmakers facing ethics investigations in the scandal involving Irvine-based Lincoln Savings & Loan, is starting a TV campaign aimed at limiting political damage back home in Michigan.

Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., is shelling out $190,000 for newspaper and TV ads in his state.

The other three senators, including California’s Sen. Alan Cranston, are defending themselves in varied forums but have yet to pay for newspaper or broadcast access to voters, according to staff members.

Riegle aide David Krawitz said Monday, “There have been inaccurate and sensational news stories about this matter, and in order to get the full and accurate story out, we’re showing this program on cable.”

Krawitz said the Michigan Democrat would use campaign money to rebroadcast a 30-minute TV interview in which he responded to questions about his involvement with Charles H. Keating Jr., head of the failed thrift. The program will air on cable stations throughout Michigan, possibly this week. Aides said they do not know how much the broadcast will cost.

DeConcini announced his ad blitz Friday at a press conference in Phoenix, saying he would run newspaper ads and commercials of two to five minutes on TV to tell his side.

“I have decided to take my case directly to the people of Arizona,” DeConcini said. “I do this not as a criticism of the press, but because I do not believe that the facts have been adequately heard and understood.”

At the center of the controversy are two meetings senators had on Keating’s behalf with federal regulators. The first, on April 2, 1987, involved Edwin J. Gray, then chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, and all the senators except Riegle. The second, seven days later, involved the five senators and bank board examiners from San Francisco. The regulatory examination of Lincoln was discussed at the latter meeting.

The government seized control of Lincoln on April 14, 1989. The eventual cost to taxpayers is expected to reach a record $2 billion.

Riegle, DeConcini and Cranston--as well as Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and John Glenn, D-Ohio--are subjects of a Senate Ethics Committee inquiry.

The five received a total of more than $1.3 million in campaign contributions from Keating, who headed the Irvine thrift, and his family and business associates.

Riegle, who later returned the money he received from the Keating group, avoided public comment on the controversy for much of last year. He began granting interviews on the subject in November to home-state reporters, saying he wanted to set the record straight.

He discussed the Lincoln affair in many interviews while traveling across Michigan during the holiday recess, Krawitz said. One of those was a Dec. 10 appearance on a half-hour program on Detroit station WXYZ, during which he was questioned by two reporters and a moderator.

Riegle is paying to rebroadcast that interview, which aide Karolyn Wallace described as “a fair presentation . . . a tough and frank discussion, and because it’s a half-hour and provides a more complete picture” than the typical news story.

Money for the broadcast will come from Riegle’s campaign treasury, Wallace said.

“The goal is to start this week, but it’s not certain,” she said.

Glenn has held lengthy press conferences and interviews, including meetings with newspaper editorial boards in Ohio, but has no plans to advertise, spokeswoman Rebecca Bell said.

Cranston has attended public meetings at which questions were raised about his involvement in the Lincoln case. “He took them as they came,” said Victoria Lion, a spokeswoman for the California Democrat. “He has been very accessible to the press.”

Last month, an angry bondholder in Lincoln’s parent firm, American Continental Corp., interrupted a panel discussion on women’s rights in Santa Ana to criticize Cranston for soliciting money from Keating and for being insensitive to the plight of victims. A staff aide said that throughout his tour of California last month, reporters and others quizzed him repeatedly about his role in the scandal.