Democrats Focus on Senate Race Funds : Politics: First effort raises $500,000 as party leaders say a well-financed organization is the only way to beat GOP.

California Democrats have begun fueling their 1992 election machine with an estimated $500,000 collected at a fund-raising party here where five U.S. Senate candidates mostly were held speechless.

Each candidate was introduced, but only Dianne Feinstein was given time to talk. The former San Francisco mayor addressed the $500-a-plate dinner Sunday in her capacity as the party’s 1990 nominee for governor.

Feinstein offered her unsuccessful campaign as an example of why the Democrats in the audience should give money to the party structure rather than--or in addition to--the candidates.

After winning a hard-fought primary battle over former state Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp in June, 1990, the Feinstein campaign was exhausted and its bank account depleted. That allowed a rested and well-financed Republican Sen. Pete Wilson to launch a vigorous general election drive while Democrats were reorganizing and scraping for funds.

Feinstein told the audience of about 650: “There was no phone call that came from the Democratic Party that said: ‘We have for you, as our party’s nominee, X amount of money in the bank for voter registration and get-out-the-vote.’

“That must never happen again,” said Feinstein, who is seeking the Senate seat held by Republican John Seymour, who was appointed by Wilson to serve until the next election, in 1992.

Feinstein’s political supporters blamed former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., Democratic state chairman at the time, for the lateness and relative ineffectiveness of the Democratic registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. Brown resigned the chairmanship this year and was succeeded by Sacramento developer Phil Angelides, who organized Sunday’s dinner to raise money to help party nominees after the June, 1992, primary.

“We know that on the day after the primary, we must be ready to take on the Republicans,” Angelides said. “That’s why the party is spending full time, like never before, on getting ready for the general election campaign.”

In addition to Feinstein, state Controller Gray Davis has declared his intent to run for the Senate seat held by Seymour.

Also at the dinner were three Democrats seeking the seat being relinquished by Sen. Alan Cranston: Reps. Barbara Boxer of Marin County and Mel Levine of Los Angeles and Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy of San Francisco.