GOP House Candidate Outspends Rival 19-1 : Campaign: Dana Rohrabacher has swamped challenger Guy C. Kimbrough in fund-raising and spending. Other Republicans seem to have similar financial power.

In what arguably is the hottest of Orange County’s congressional races, incumbent Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach) is outspending his Democratic opponent by a margin of 19 to 1, campaign records show.

Between Jan. 1, 1989, and Oct. 17, 1990, Rohrabacher raised $366,982 and spent $288,325, compared to $13,844 and $14,901, respectively, for Democratic challenger Guy C. Kimbrough. A college professor, Kimbrough began raising money earlier this year for his rematch with Rohrabacher in the 42nd Congressional District.

At the same time, an independent fund-raising group that is seeking to unseat Rohrabacher said it has raised only $8,000 to $9,000, which it intends to use to pay for a series of anti-Rohrabacher advertisements airing on cable television.

On Friday, Rohrabacher filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission because the group, the Southern California Coalition for Responsible Government, had not yet filed financial reports required by federal law. A spokesman for the organization said it would move quickly to correct any problem.

Despite the lopsided fund-raising and spending totals, the Rohrabacher-Kimbrough race has attracted the most interest in Orange County because of the national attention Rohrabacher received when he launched an attack on purportedly pornographic and sacrilegious artwork funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

In other Orange County congressional races, the only challenger who has filed an FEC report, required when a candidate raises more than $5,000, is Democrat Eugene C. Gratz of Laguna Beach, who is challenging Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) in the 40th Congressional District.

As of Sept. 30, Gratz had raised $31,754 and spent $21,150, according to his most recent report to the FEC. Gratz said he has spent most of his money on Democratic “party-building” activities, such as voter registration drives.

Cox, who has spent much of the 1990 election cycle raising money to pay off the $334,298 debt from his 1988 campaign, collected $609,754 between Jan. 1, 1989, and Oct. 17, 1990, and spent $508,158, including debt repayment. His outstanding debt remains at $114,619.

Gratz, a real estate attorney, had $7,034 in the bank as of Sept. 30, while Cox had $47,475 on hand on Oct. 17.

No financial statements were filed by the announced challengers to Reps. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) in the 39th District, which comprises northeastern Orange County, Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) in the 43rd District, which includes southern Orange County, and Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) in the 38th District in north-central Orange County.

Barbara Jackson, Dornan’s Democratic opponent, announced her withdrawal from the campaign before the primary election, but her name remains on the Tuesday ballot. Dannemeyer is running against Democrat Francis X. Hoffman of Garden Grove, while Packard is opposed by Libertarian Richard L. Arnold and Peace and Freedom candidate Doug Hansen.

A second Rohrabacher challenger, Libertarian Richard Gibb Martin, also is among the challengers who did not file FEC finance reports.

The incumbents, however, have raised and spent significant amounts of money. Dornan listed contributions of $1.4 million since Jan. 1, 1989, and expenditures of $1.2 million, most of it on his direct-mail fund-raising operation. Dornan reported no debts and $209,591 in the bank as of Sept. 30. Dannemeyer has raised $393,693 and spent $313,939, largely on direct-mail fund-raising. He reported no debt and $90,469 in the bank as of Oct. 17. Packard has raised $97,387 and spent $56,060 by Oct. 17. He reported no debt and cash on hand of $209,380.

In the 42nd District race, Kimbrough, chairman of the political science program for the Mt. San Jacinto Community College District, lost to Rohrabacher in the 1988 general election by a margin of 34% to 65%.

In an interview earlier this week, Kimbrough said his spending will approach $60,000 by Tuesday, including a $26,000 “in-kind” contribution of ready-made television ads from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Not all of the ads will be aired, however.

Kimbrough will use much of his money to air 30- and 60-second spots about 200 times on local cable television stations. The ads attack Rohrabacher for supporting offshore oil drilling and favoring content restrictions on art funded by the NEA. In addition to the cable TV ads, Kimbrough said he also is sending out 43,000 campaign mail pieces over the weekend.

In one direct-mail piece sent by Rohrabacher, and in two others that are on their way, the first-term congressman is pitching himself as a fiscal conservative who fights wasteful government spending and strongly supports the local aerospace industry.

The Southern California Coalition for Responsible Government, the anti-Rohrabacher group organized largely because of the congressman’s attempts to impose content restrictions on NEA-funded art, is spending about $5,000 to air cable television ads, said spokesman Michael Nash.

In a letter to the FEC released Friday, the Rohrabacher campaign asked for an investigation of the coalition’s failure to file required campaign finance statements.

“They’ve been slinging a lot of arrows in my direction,” Rohrabacher said in an interview. “If they’re going to get involved in the political system like that, they should realize there are certain rules, both legal rules and ethical rules, that they should be following.”

“I hope that there’s not a problem,” responded Nash. “If there is, we will take care of it. I think it’s typical of the Rohrabacher campaign to try to distract the voters with non-issues and technicalities, rather than to address the real concerns of the district.”