COUNTYWIDE : Lagomarsino Ranks 2nd in Oil PAC Gifts

The oil and natural gas industries donated $48,803 to help reelect Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura) in 1988, the second biggest contribution to any member of the House of Representatives, a new study shows.

The study from the Center for Responsive Politics, a bipartisan congressional watchdog group, said that only Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) received more campaign contributions from the oil industry than Lagomarsino during the 1987-88 election cycle.

Young, a strong supporter of Alaska’s oil industry, received $57,350 from the political action committees (PACs) of various oil and gas companies.

Of the contributions to Lagomarsino’s campaign, the vast majority came from big oil companies, including $5,050 from Chevron, $4,998 from British Petroleum and $3,450 from Amoco, said Larry Makinson, author of the study.

No other Californians were among the top 10 beneficiaries of oil industry political donations.

“It was a lot of money to get from oil, but he did have a very expensive race in 1988,” Makinson said.

Lagomarsino and his challenger, state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), together raised about $3 million in the most expensive House race in the country.

Hart received $1,000 from the oil and gas industry, including $500 from Coastal Corporation and $500 from Pacific Enterprises, both natural gas producers and distributors.

In 1988, Hart tried to make an issue of Lagomarsino’s financial connections to the oil industry. Anita Perez-Ferguson, a former Hart aide now challenging Lagomarsino, has resurrected the issue for this year’s campaign.

Reb Wayne, Lagomarsino’s campaign manager, said the congressman is not influenced by the contributions. “No one tells him how to think or to vote,” Wayne said.

“He chooses to try to work with the oil gas industry rather than have a confrontational attitude,” Wayne said. “It is easier to get more out of them if you can talk to them.”

Wayne said that although Lagomarsino is sympathetic to industry needs to explore for oil, he continues to push for environmental safeguards. “He has worked to protect the environment while at the same time tried to prevent Californians from waiting in long gas lines,” he said.

The study of oil and gas political donations is part of a book scheduled to be published this August titled, “Open Secrets: The Dollar Power of PACs in Congress.”