Rohrabacher, With No Primary Opponent, Still Outspends Democrats

As two low-budget Democratic candidates fight for the right to challenge him in the Nov. 6 election, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita) has been quietly raising and spending campaign cash at a rate of more than $15,000 a month.

In a statement filed with the Federal Elections Commission last week, Rohrabacher reported $54,131 in contributions and $50,607 in expenditures for the first three months of the year. His cash on hand as of March 31 amounted to $95,053.

By contrast, the two Democrats scheduled to compete in the June 5 primary, computer newsletter publisher Jim Cavuoto of Torrance and political science instructor Guy Kimbrough of Huntington Beach, said they have accumulated less than $5,000 each.

Neither Democrat filed quarterly campaign finance statements, which are required for federal candidates only if their fund raising or spending has surpassed $5,000.

But both men predicted they would cross that threshold this week. Kimbrough said he would raise $15,000 during the primary campaign and, assuming he wins his party’s nomination, $135,000 for the general election.

“I think it’s very do-able, and I’m not just blowing smoke,” said Kimbrough, who raised $12,544 before losing to Rohrabacher in the 1988 general election.

Cavuoto said he could collect similar amounts, but added, “Going much beyond $100,000 is going to be tough.”

Rohrabacher faces no primary opposition in his bid for a second term as congressman for the largely coastal 42nd District, which includes Signal Hill and parts of Long Beach. But his fund raising has been brisk.

Of the $54,131 in contributions listed in Rohrabacher’s quarterly report, $12,000 came from political action committees, including a total of $1,750 from five oil industry donors--Texaco, Chevron, Exxon, Unocal and the Independent Oil Producers Agency.

Rohrabacher favors aggressive domestic oil exploration--including offshore drilling--and he acknowledges that this position probably helped prompt oil industry contributions to his campaign. An industry lobbyist agreed, but said his group’s donation was also prompted by a political fact of life: Incumbents usually win.

“We’ve been around long enough to know that the power of incumbency is important,” said Bill Northrop, executive vice president of the Independent Oil Producers Agency, a marketing cooperative for small oil operators. “What little we have to give we give to incumbents.”

Among the other PAC donors listed in Rohrabacher’s report are a tobacco industry group, the Bank of America, General Telephone and three defense contractors--Lockheed, Rockwell and McDonnell Douglas.

Cavuoto said he will draw attention to “big money” special interest contributions to Rohrabacher--predicting that voters will be put off, for instance, when they learn of his donations from the oil industry. Rohrabacher disagrees.

“I don’t think it is intellectually defensible to suggest that because someone is in public office, then they (would take) a position simply because they accept contributions from a certain industry,” Rohrabacher said. “People are sophisticated enough to know that it’s industry that is supporting people for the stands they take and not the other way around.”

Of Rohrabacher’s $50,607 in expenditures, $13,837 went to pay campaign debts incurred during his successful first run for Congress in 1988. As of March 31, his outstanding debts were $22,291, according to the report.

Other expenditures covered 1990 campaign spending. A big-ticket item, for instance, was paychecks for his campaign manager, Gene Ferguson, who made $12,315 in salary and bonuses during the three-month period.

One of the largest single payments, $3,500, covered expenses incurred by Vice President Dan Quayle when he attended a February fund-raiser for Rohrabacher in Long Beach.

Rohrabacher’s campaign treasurer, Jeffrey Earle, says the rookie congressman hopes to keep his spending to a minimum during the coming year. Maintaining a sizable cash balance proves useful come election year, he said.

“I’ve been told that by having $100,000 in the account at the beginning of the year (we) might have deterred some potential challengers,” Earle said.

Cavuoto and Kimbrough admit that Rohrabacher will be tough to beat, buoyed as he is by a sizable war chest, the power of incumbency and the Republican Party’s commanding 53% share of registered voters in the 42nd District. Faced with these odds, they say, contributions will be hard to get--even from the Democratic Party.

But each candidate says he can still collect enough cash to run a winning campaign. Cavuoto says he will use his state Democratic Party endorsement and his connections in the computer industry to raise money, and Kimbrough hopes to call on union organizations.

Both candidates plan to tap groups at odds with Rohrabacher--opponents of offshore oil drilling and those who oppose his anti-abortion stand, for example. They also hope to target groups angered by the GOP congressman’s efforts to restrict federal funding for art projects that government agencies deem obscene, indecent, sacrilegious or racist.

Rohrabacher says he doubts such strategy will work. He says his positions on issues such as oil drilling, abortion and federal funding for the arts, though controversial, are much appreciated in his conservative district.

“I think voters appreciate the fact that I’m not afraid to take tough stands,” Rohrabacher said. “They didn’t send me back here to sit in a rocking chair.”