Big Spender in Cerritos Campaign Draws Criticism : Politics: A newcomer and first-time City Council candidate has raised almost double the money--$96,000--of all of his competitors combined.

A candidate for City Council, who moved to Cerritos within the last year, has raised $96,000--almost double the total raised by the other 12 contenders in the April 10 election.

Charles J. Kim, 34, a newspaper columnist and political consultant, opened a campaign office last July, shortly after moving from neighboring Artesia. He has at least one full-time campaign staffer and a direct-mail consultant on his payroll.

Kim, who said he would be the only Korean-American city councilman in the state if elected, also has made extensive use of computers to identify Korean voters in the city.

“When I decided to run I decided to run to win,” he said. “I didn’t decide to run to have fun.”

His fund-raising prowess, combined with his arrival in the city just last year, has raised the hackles of most of the other candidates and generated charges that he is a carpetbagger.

“I don’t think you can buy an election from the people of Cerritos, you have to earn it,” said Sherman Kappe, a planning commissioner who is making his second bid for a council seat. Kappe has raised $7,346. Mayor Diana Needham, who is not seeking reelection, described Kim’s fund-raising effort as overkill.

The most any other candidate in the current campaign has raised is about $16,300. Officials said the most successful fund-raising effort in previous council elections generated about $32,000.

Kim said those complaining about the size of his campaign treasury are jealous. “They want to raise the money but they can’t,” he said. He pointed out that some candidates lent their own money to their campaigns, indicating that they do not enjoy the same degree of support he does.

Kim acknowledged that his campaign support comes largely from the Southland’s Korean community, which he said is anxious to become more involved in politics.

The stakes in the Cerritos City Council election are particularly high this year because three of the five seats are open, and two veteran incumbents--Mayor Needham and Councilman Barry Rabbitt--are barred from running. Rabbitt and Needham had to bow out after a court ruling upheld Proposition H--the referendum voters adopted two years ago to limit council members to two consecutive terms. Needham served 12 years on the council, and Rabbitt served 20 years.

As a result, the council makeup could change dramatically.

Kim said he considers Cerritos the perfect place to launch a political career. With an Asian population of at least 30% and a black population of about 10%, Cerritos is known as one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the state.

Campaign funding reports filed with the city clerk show that the overwhelming majority of Kim’s contributors are Koreans who do not live in Cerritos--adding further fuel to the charge that he is a carpetbagger.

During the most recent reporting period--Jan. 1 to Feb. 24--Kim raised $48,345 from 179 people who contributed $100 or more. Only nine of the contributors have Cerritos addresses.

Kim pointed out, however, that he has been active in Cerritos. His mother and his two brothers live here, he said, and he has been a Sunday school teacher and a choir leader at the local Presbyterian Church for years.

“I’ve spent a lot of money,” said Kim, “on reaching out to potential Korean-American voters (not registered to vote).” He said about 500 new voters have been registered through his efforts. Cerritos has about 24,500 voters and 27.3%, or 6,711 voters, went to the polls in the 1988 City Council election.

“I would like to sell my ideas and programs to the voters in Cerritos,” Kim said, listing a number of issues he thinks are important--crime, gangs, senior citizen programs, earthquake preparedness.

Kim, former executive director of the Korean American Coalition in Los Angeles, came to the United States with his family in 1976. He served in the U.S. Army, earned a degree in political science from USC, worked with Korean community groups and helped run various political campaigns, including one unsuccessful campaign for Los Angeles City Council. He writes a column for a Korean daily newspaper and hosts a Korean radio talk show.

Council candidate Marshall H. Story, referring to Kim’s campaign treasury, said Kim “apparently doesn’t understand the system. If he’s got that kind of fund-raising mechanism, he ought to run for Congress or the state Legislature.” Story is a 53-year-old lead mechanic for Trans World Airlines and an active Democrat who has twice tried to win a seat in the Assembly.

Kim’s campaign signs have begun to spring up throughout the city, prompting opponent Kappe to complain: “He’s littering chain-link fences. They’re at gas stations.”

Another candidate, George Marsh, said: “It’s way too much for a candidate to spend on a City Council election.” Marsh is a real estate manager and former Bellflower councilman who now lives in Cerritos and is making his second bid for a council seat here.

“You can almost send everybody money in the mail for that,” said candidate Faith Peckham, a small-business owner who ran unsuccessfully for a council seat two years ago.

Former City Councilman Alex Beanum said Kim’s fund-raising “changes the whole scheme of the local election, that’s the thing that bothers me. It takes on the aura of being big-time politics rather than local grass-roots type of representation.” Beanum, an engineer, is trying to recapture the seat he lost four years ago.

Councilwoman Ann B. Joynt, the only incumbent up for reelection, said she does not want to say anything negative about Kim’s spending. However, Joynt, like several other candidates, questioned whether big spending in a local election can win it for a newcomer.

Joynt, for example, taught in local high schools for years before she ran for office. Perry N. Barit, a 52-year-old Cerritos architect making his second bid for a council seat, is on the city’s Planning Commission.

“To be electable you must have paid your dues in the community,” said Barit, a past president of the Optimist Club.

The other planning commissioner in the race, Kappe, who has owned and managed property in the city for years, said: “It’s how you interact with people over a long period of time that determines who wins elections in Cerritos.”

Councilman Rabbitt, also barred from seeking another term, said: “I believe the people of Cerritos will be outraged at that . . . amount of dollars being raised by people outside the community in order to influence the outcome of an election.”

Rabbitt is supporting John Crawley, a candidate with the kind of credentials that usually prove impeccable in Cerritos elections. Crawley is president of the Optimist Club, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a senior financial analyst for the Atlantic Richfield Corp., and has coached youth baseball and basketball.

Kim, on the other hand, belongs to the new Cerritos, which council candidate Story says is “getting to be the south Monterey Park,” a reference to the increasing Asian population in Cerritos. South Monterey Park is more than 50% Asian.

Other candidates seeking City Council seats are Michael C. Cosgrove, who owns a dry-cleaning business; Michael Kerr, a hospital administrator; Mansour Meisami, who works for the federal government, and Jim Hsieh, 52, who owns a machine shop.

Hsieh, who has raised the second-highest campaign treasury--about $16,300--declined to comment on Kim’s spending. “I condemn anyone who runs a negative campaign,” Hsieh said.

FUND-RAISING RACE Amounts reported raised by candidates in the Cerritos City Council election:

Charles J. Kim: $96,085

Perry N. Barit: 9,110

Alex Beanum: 1,958

Michael C. Cosgrove: 0

John Crawley: 1,726

Jim Hsieh: 16,296

Ann B. Joynt: 7,432

Sherman Kappe: 7,346

Michael Kerr: 1,600

George Marsh: 9,966

Mansour Meisami: 500

Faith Peckham: O

Marshall H. Story: 350

Source: March 2 fund-raising reports.