$100,000 Is Left to Fuel Bernson’s Final Push : Campaign: Challenger Julie Korenstein has $15,000 remaining in her treasury but expects to raise more.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson goes into the final days of his toughest reelection contest with at least $100,000 to spend on a flood of political mailers and a sophisticated get-out-the-vote drive, according to disclosure reports filed Thursday at City Hall.

The embattled Bernson, benefiting from hefty contributions by real estate interests, continued to maintain a large financial edge over his top challenger, Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein, the reports show.

Korenstein, whose contributions have largely come from school teachers and a smattering of prominent Westside liberals, disclosed that she had only $14,258.63 in her treasury as of March 24, compared with the $105,827 available to Bernson on the same date.

Bernson raised $100,449 and spent $147,090 in the past four weeks, while Korenstein raised $23,596.65 and spent $10,307.64, their reports show.

The reports filed Thursday covered the candidates’ finances from Feb. 24 to last Sunday.

Since Jan. 1, Bernson, who has represented the 12th District in the northwestern San Fernando Valley since 1979 and faced only nominal opposition in his two prior reelection campaigns, has raised a total of $203,438. Korenstein has raised $51,882.74.

Northridge businessman Walter Prince, viewed as the third-strongest candidate in the six-person race, had not filed his campaign finance report by 5 p.m. Thursday, the deadline for submitting the documents.

Grieg Smith, Bernson’s chief political strategist, said Bernson would spend all he had and raise even more in the final days of the campaign, which culminates with the April 9 primary election. If no candidate gets more than 50% plus one vote in the primary, a runoff election would be held in May between the top two vote-getters.

Bernson’s funds will finance an outpouring of mailers and a large-scale drive to get his supporters to the polls, Smith said.

“We’ve dropped a lot of mail so far, and we’re going to be dropping a lot more in the next two weeks.”

Barbara Grover, a political adviser to Korenstein, predicted that the school board member would spend a total of $100,000 before the election, which would require an extraordinarily fruitful fund-raising drive during the next 11 days.

But Grover said she expected a Los Angeles Times poll published earlier this week to weaken the incumbent’s fund-raising ability in the final days and strengthen Korenstein’s. The poll showed Bernson is likely to be forced into a runoff with Korenstein. Contributors like to put their money on winners, Grover said.

Bernson, often accused by opponents of being in league with wealthy developers, filed a report containing the names of many real estate interests. Smith said Bernson “is not ashamed of any of our supporters” who “are the same people who show up on the campaign statements of other elected officials.” Smith noted that several hundred of Bernson’s contributors gave small amounts.

“Over 300 people have given $45 contributions,” Smith said. “These are local people, community activists.”

The reports showed that candidate Arthur (Larry) Kagele, a Los Angeles police detective, had raised $275 and publisher Leonard Shapiro collected $4,383, including a $2,000 loan from himself. Candidate Allen Robert Hecht, a businessman, did not file a report.

In the 2nd District race, covering the east and central Valley, Councilman Joel Wachs raised $67,115 to finance his campaign for a sixth term. Of Wachs’ two electoral foes, homeowner association leader Tom Paterson and legislative advocate Peter A. Lynch, only Paterson filed a campaign report. It showed he had raised $1,079.