CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / PROPS. 118 and 119 : Redistricting Measures Costliest on the Ballot

The battle over Propositions 118 and 119, two measures that could help shape the state’s political power structure for the next decade, has become the costliest initiative fight on the ballot.

Supporters of the two initiatives and a single group opposing both of them had already spent a combined total of more than $6.2 million as of Friday, and they figure to collect and spend much more by the time the polls close on Tuesday.

The opposition so far has outspent the supporters of the two measures by a margin of about 4 to 1, not counting what it cost backers of the measures to collect the signatures that qualified them for the ballot.

Both measures would change the way political district lines are drawn every 10 years, a process that can decide which party controls the Legislature and California’s congressional delegation for a decade. Proposition 118 would require any redistricting plan to be approved by two-thirds votes in each house of the Legislature, signed by the governor and ratified by the voters. Proposition 119 would create an independent commission to do the job.

The partisan battle lines are clear: Republicans generally are supporting the ballot measures, and Democrats are opposing them. But the financial backing behind the campaigns for and against the initiatives is not as tidy.

The opposition campaign has been running a series of television commercials featuring actors James Garner, Jack Lemmon and Bea Arthur attacking the two initiatives as plots hatched by “big business”--oil and insurance companies in particular--to seize control of the state Legislature.

Those commercials are funded largely by contributions from organized labor and the state’s trial lawyer lobby. But much of their funding also has come from the same special interests that the ads attack. The companies are big contributors to the campaigns of Democratic lawmakers who control the Legislature and the fate of any bills in which the businesses have an interest.

Consider Chevron U.S.A. Inc. The corporation contributed $25,000 to help put Proposition 119 on the ballot and now finds itself the central target of the opposition’s advertising campaign and its strongly worded press releases.

The message: Chevron wants to buy itself a Republican Legislature and with it usher in a new era of environmental degradation.

But the giant oil company, it turns out, has contributed even more money to the politicians who are fighting the initiatives. Since the beginning of 1989, Chevron has given more than $42,000 to Democratic members of the state Assembly and Senate, who have all but turned over their personal campaign treasuries to a joint political committee opposing Propositions 118 and 119.

Denny Samuel, Chevron’s chief lobbyist in Sacramento, said the company helped qualify Proposition 119 for the ballot so that state voters could “take another look” at the way the district lines are drawn. Although the Democratic-controlled Legislature and the state’s congressional delegation have been hostile to Chevron on the off-shore oil-drilling issue, Samuel said the company enjoys good working relationships with members of both parties.

“Chevron’s responsibility to its stockholders is to at least be around the table when legislators are forming public policy,” Samuel said. “Some legislators let you do that and some don’t. The ones that do are rewarded with our support.”

Bob Marks, a spokesman for the Proposition 119 campaign, said it is “hypocritical” for the Democratic-financed opposition to attack the initiatives for accepting donations from the same companies that help elect the Democrats.

“It’s very misleading,” Marks said. “All those people (they) say are evil are paying for their commercials.”

Following the money trail is not always easy. The combatants have formed at least 11 separate political committees through which they funnel their contributions.

On the Democratic side, the California Medical Assn. donates $1,000 to Assemblyman Burt Margolin of Los Angeles. Margolin then contributes to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown’s initiative committee. Brown passes the money to the No on 118 and 119 Committee, which spends it to try to defeat the measures.

The Republicans have created a similar pyramid. But their operation is not as organized because the campaigns supporting Proposition 118 and 119 are not unified, as is the opposition. There are several committees buying ads and mailing letters to voters on behalf of the two measures.

Just last week, a new committee called Citizens for Political Reform was organized to collect cash for Proposition 119 and, oddly enough, Proposition 111. Proposition 111 has nothing to do with redistricting but would raise the state gasoline tax to pay for new roads and transit.

The new group filed a notice declaring its existence but, according to the secretary of state’s office, has yet to reveal where its money is coming from. The discrepancy drew a rebuke from the opponents of Proposition 119.

“The most obvious conclusion one can draw from this scheme is that the 119 campaign is trying to hide the names of its contributors whom the public might find offensive,” said Karin Caves, a spokeswoman for the opposition. “Mixing potholes with politics won’t fool voters.”

Here are major contributors to the campaigns for and against Propositions 118 and 119.

For 118--Republican National Committee, $601,000; California Republican Party, $50,000; Tenneco Management Co., $15,000; American Basic Foods, $10,000.

For 119: Republican National Committee, $75,000; State Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), $75,000; Hewlett Packard, $75,000; Lincoln Club of Northern California (Republican Party), $50,000; Chevron U.S.A., $25,000; David Packard, $25,000; National Rifle Assn., $15,000.

Against 118 and 119: Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) $2,035,000; Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Los Angeles), $1,355,000; Congressional Democrats, $1,630,000.