SUPERVISORIAL ELECTION : Molina Tops Fast-Paced Campaign to Raise Funds

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Gloria Molina raised $108,260--more than twice as much as any other candidate--during the first few weeks of the high-stakes race for Los Angeles County’s 1st District supervisor, fund-raising reports show.

The reports, which covered fund raising through Dec. 8, show state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) raised $53,578 and Sarah Flores, a former aide to retiring Supervisor Pete Schabarum, collected $28,318. State Sen. Charles M. Calderon reported raising $10,300.

However, those figures already are out of date because of fast-paced fund raising for the Jan. 22 special election. They also do not reflect other campaign funds available to some candidates.

For example, Flores held a $500-a-plate fund-raiser Wednesday night that swelled her campaign coffers by $150,000. Torres will hold a $500-per-person dinner Monday in Sacramento.

In addition to the $108,260 she raised, Molina has $91,968 in her City Council campaign treasury--some of which she can use for the supervisor’s race. Calderon and Torres have little left in their Senate campaign funds after tapping them for the 1st District race.

The four are among nine candidates in a new, court-drawn 1st District stretching from El Sereno and Lincoln Heights east to Irwindale and La Puente and southeast to Santa Fe Springs. The district was created by a federal judge who ruled that old district lines denied the county’s 3 million Latinos political representation on the Board of Supervisors.

With control of the five-member board at stake, the race is expected to attract money from all over the county.

That was evident at Republican Flores’ fund-raiser at the Biltmore. Sponsored by conservative Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana, who are fighting to keep control of the board, the dinner attracted many of the business owners and lobbyists who come before the county seeking contracts or approval of projects.

Interest in the race also was demonstrated by a lawsuit filed last week by the county’s largest labor union challenging state campaign contribution limits of $1,000 for an individual and $5,000 for a political action committee.

“I’ve joked that we’ll hock our property to get a new member on the board,” said Sharon Grimpe Correll, general manager of Service Employees International Union Local 660. She said the organization, which represents 40,000 county workers, has contributed $5,000 to Torres’ campaign and is willing to pour a minimum of $50,000 into the race if the limits are lifted.

In its lawsuit, the labor group cited a federal court ruling earlier this year striking down portions of the voter-approved Proposition 73 contribution limits. The state Fair Political Practices Commission, however, has ruled that the limits apply to special elections such as the 1st District race.

The candidates have said they need to raise $300,000 to $500,000 each, making the race one of the costliest in county history.

Flores raised $400,000 to finish first in the now invalidated June primary, but she had virtually nothing left after the election. Flores raised another $90,682 since June, in addition to the $28,318. But the $90,682 is intended to repay her debts, including a $125,000 legal bill from an unsuccessful effort to become a party in the voting rights case. As of now, the money cannot be used in the supervisorial race, said campaign manager Eric Rose.

Of Molina’s early fund-raising lead, Torres spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers said: “We did pretty well considering she got into it earlier and had an invitation for a fund-raiser in the mail before the election was announced. Art started from scratch three weeks before this was due.”

Torres, who entered the race Nov. 17, transferred $20,000 in contributions from his Senate fund. Calderon (D-Whittier), a last-minute entry into the race, took $5,000 from his Senate political fund.

Among Molina’s contributors were the Committee to Re-Elect Esteban Torres to Congress, $5,000; Women For, $2,500; Dan Garcia, a city police commissioner, $1,500; City Hall lobbyist Ken Spiker, $1,000, and Robert Arias, the county’s affirmative-action officer, $100.