Galanter Foe Shows Clout in Early Fund Raising : Politics: Mary Lee Gray raised more money than the incumbent in the last six months of 1990.

Challenger Mary Lee Gray raised more money than incumbent Ruth Galanter during early fund raising in the campaign for the Los Angeles City Council’s 6th District seat, campaign reports show.

Gray collected $27,985 during the last six months of 1990, compared to the $25,418 taken in by Galanter.

“The money is definitely another indication of my strength on the Westside and throughout the district,” said Gray, an aide to County Supervisor Deane Dana.

But Galanter still holds a larger campaign fund: She has nearly $80,000 in the bank, thanks to money she had collected previously. Gray, meanwhile, has already spent much of what she raised in opening campaign offices in Venice and the Crenshaw District. She had $9,214 in cash on hand at the end of the year.

Galanter campaign manager Marc Litchman said the councilwoman’s fund raising is “right on schedule.” A major Galanter fund-raiser was held last week, and two dozen more are scheduled before the April 9 municipal primary, Litchman said. “And the fact we have about $80,000 on hand,” he said. “We are pretty comfortable with that.”

Tavis Smiley, another Galanter challenger and a former aide to Mayor Tom Bradley, said he has raised $24,000. But that could not be confirmed as of Wednesday. Smiley said he had mailed his campaign statement by last Thursday’s deadline, but it had not reached the City Clerk’s Office by Wednesday.

Salvatore Grammatico, a real estate agent and activist who has filed signatures to enter the race, showed donations totaling $1,150.

The reports come as city election workers are verifying petitions to qualify candidates for the April primary. As of Wednesday, the city clerk’s office confirmed that Galanter, Gray and Smiley submitted the required 500 signatures, along with J. Wilson Bowman, an education consultant.

Grammatico and four other candidates submitted signatures by the deadline Saturday. Their petitions should be confirmed or denied by next week, a spokesman in the city clerk’s office said.

The early campaign finance reports made Gray the top fund-raiser in the last half of 1990 not only in the 6th District, but among challengers in all of the city’s eight council races.

Gray said her fund raising shows the broad base of her support in the 6th District, which stretches from Venice, south to Westchester and east to the Crenshaw District.

Gray listed all of her contributors, down to a Venice man who gave $1, even though campaign reporting laws require candidates only to provide the names of donors who give more than $100.

The listing of small donors was a political statement, Gray said. “I wanted to indicate the broad-based support that I have,” she said.

Gray said the campaign report should also counteract speculation that she would rely on her boss, Dana, to raise funds. Some observers have said that her ties to Dana, a Republican, could be a liability in a district that is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Gray did not get all her money in small increments. Her report shows that she collected the maximum contribution of $500 from 21 donors, who included developers, real estate interests and small business people.

Galanter received the bulk of her money from supporters who gave the maximum. And development interests are prominent among her donors. For instance, lobbyist Arthur K. Snyder, a former city councilman who has frequently represented builders, collected $8,500 for Galanter from 17 contributors. She also received maximum contributions from several business people or professionals and from Joseph Edmiston, the president of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

“Ruth Galanter has resorted to obtaining developer and Establishment-type funds,” Gray said, “which is a breach of the trust that people put in her when they elected her as a non-Establishment, non-development type of person.”

Litchman responded that Gray is the one who should be concerned about ties to developers, because of her link to the pro-development Dana. “She works for the developers’ best friend in county government,” Litchman said. “Ruth has always advocated planned and managed growth, and the developer money has not influenced that at all.”

Litchman said Galanter is continuing her policy of rejecting contributions from developers who have controversial building proposals within her district.

Last year, Galanter returned $3,200 in contributions collected on her behalf by the senior partner in the firm that is building Playa Vista, the massive housing and commercial complex adjacent to Marina del Rey.