Lobbyists Not Feeling Effects of a Recession : Politics: More than $29 million was spent in the third quarter of this year.

California may be mired in a recession, but state Capitol lobbyists continue to rake in large fees paid by clients with interests in the outcome of pending legislation or administrative regulations.

More than $29.4 million was spent to hire lobbyists during the third quarter of this year, raising the total amount spent to $89.2 million for the first ninth months of 1991, according to a report to be issued today by Secretary of State March Fong Eu.

If the lobbyist spending trend continues, the total for this two-year legislative session will top $200 million, more than the $193 million spent during the 1989-90 session.

The spending reports issued by Eu list only money spent for salaries and overhead expenses of lobbyists hired to influence legislators and state officials. Contributions that lobbyists’ employers make to the campaign funds of Assembly and Senate members are made public in separate reports later.

The California Medical Assn. led the field of 1,810 lobbyist employers, spending $476,793 during the most recent reporting period, and bringing its total to $1.5 million, according to Eu.

For the year, the California Teachers Assn. is No. 1 with total expenditures of $2.4 million. The teachers group spent $283,590 during the third quarter.

The highest-paid individual lobbying firm was Carpenter & Associates, founded by Dennis E. Carpenter, a Republican former state senator from Newport Beach. It earned $741,412 to climb to $1.8 million for the year.

Carpenter narrowly took over the top spot held at mid-year by SRJ Jackson/Barish & Associates, headed by veteran lobbyist Clay Jackson, whose offices recently were raided by the FBI in connection with a federal probe of political corruption in Sacramento.

Jackson’s firm collected $681,631 during the third quarter, and is less than $100,000 behind Carpenter.

Carpenter represents a variety of clients, including the Assn. of California Insurance Companies, the American Tobacco Co., Orange County, the Atlantic Richfield Co., and the Pacific Lumber Co.

Jackson also represents many employers, including the American Insurance Assn., Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc., GTECH Corp., the California Hotel and Motel Assn., and Kimberly-Clark Corp.

Advocation Inc., headed by long-time lobbyist Donald K. BrOwn--who capitalizes the O in his name to keep him from being mistook for others named Brown--ranked No. 3 among lobbying firms with $557,908 for the quarter and a $1.5 million cumulative total.

The rest of the top 10 in spending on lobbyists for the first nine months of 1991 were:

The Assn. of California Insurance Cos.; the California Medical Assn.; the Western States Petroleum Assn.; the California Manufacturers Assn.; the California Trial Lawyers Assn.; Pacific Telesis Group and its subsidiaries; Waste Management Inc.; the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and the Personal Insurance Federation of California.