$27 Million Raised in Race for Senate Seats : Politics: Despite fears, weak economy has not limited campaign donations, according to candidates’ reports.

The economic recession notwithstanding, the 12 Democrats and Republicans running for two U.S. Senate seats in California this year have raised more than $27 million to finance their June 2 primary election campaigns, reports filed Wednesday disclose.

By the start of April, the campaigns collectively had $9 million in the bank, ready to be funneled to television stations in the remaining weeks of the campaign in a crash program to sway voters.

Wednesday was the deadline for the campaigns to file reports of January-through-March campaign contributions and expenditures with the Federal Elections Commission.

On June 2, Democrats and Republicans will vote for nominees for two U.S. Senate seats. One is a full six-year term in the seat held by Democrat Alan Cranston, who is retiring. The other is the final two years of the term won in 1988 by now-Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, who appointed Republican John Seymour to the seat in January, 1991.

All year long, campaign officials have complained how difficult it has been to raise campaign funds. They said money was tight because of the recession, particularly in the real estate development industry. Officials also noted that competition was intense for money this year because of a presidential election, unprecedented campaigns for both Senate seats and seven new U.S. House seats.

But Ron Smith, a Los Angeles-based consultant to Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Stanford) said the economic downtown has not seemed to affect fund raising the way that many had feared.

Campbell, who has the support of big Silicon Valley-connected contributors like David Packard, collected $718,327 between Jan. 1 and March 31 and had $2.1 million on hand for a television advertising campaign that begins Saturday.

In the Los Angeles area, 30 seconds of air time with one of the major network-owned stations costs $9,000 to $18,000.

Both Campbell and Los Angeles television commentator Bruce Herschensohn were running well ahead of the pace of Campbell mentor Ed Zschau in his winning campaign for the GOP nomination to run against Cranston in 1986. The two have raised more than $5 million, while Zschau had collected only $2.4 million by May 15, 1986.

Herschensohn raised more than $500,000 during the period, but spent $647,987, leaving a balance of $430,930.

Other highlights:

* Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) continued to impress with her fund-raising ability by collecting $1.2 million during the quarter for a total of $4 million raised and more than $1.2 million on hand. Boxer disclosed in mid-March that she had written 89 overdrafts on the defunct U.S. House bank and the Ethics Committee later said the figure was much higher. There was no direct evidence that the bank scandal significantly affected her fund-raising campaign.

* Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica), competing with Boxer for the Cranston seat, remained the overall fund-raising champion with a total collected so far of $5.4 million, although Boxer out-raised Levine by nearly 2 to 1 during 1992. Levine is also the spending champion, with expenses of more than $3 million for the quarter, mostly for a saturation television advertising campaign that began March 31. With two months to go, Boxer had nearly as much cash on hand as Levine.

* Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, running against Levine and Boxer, has been the opinion poll leader, but raised just a little more than $500,000 during the three months. McCarthy remained competitive, however, with $1 million on hand.

* Former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein demonstrated her fund-raising ability by collecting more than $1 million and had $1.2 million in the bank in her Democratic primary fight with Controller Gray Davis for the two-year seat. The report would not reflect whether her fund-raising pace was affected by a state lawsuit against her alleged improprieties in the financial reports of her 1990 campaign for governor. The suit was filed April 1.

* Controller Davis raised only $339,378 during the period, but he spent very little and had $1.7 million on hand for a television ad campaign in his contest with Feinstein. Davis entered the contest with $900,000 that had been raised during his campaigns for controller and were carried over to his Senate campaign.

* Sen. John Seymour was selected by Wilson for the Senate seat in part because of his fund-raising ability, but Seymour had less than $500,000 on hand on March 31, largely because of the television advertising campaign he launched Feb. 28 in an attempt to raise his name identification. Seymour collected $780,021 during the period and spent $1.4 million.

* The good news for Seymour was that his conservative Republican opponent, Rep. William E. Dannemeyer, had less than $30,000 in the bank at the end of the period after spending $1 million, much of it believed to be on costly direct-mail fund raising.

Fund-Raising Report

Candidates for California ‘ s two U.S. Senate seats filed reports on campaign receipts and expenditures for the first three months of 1992 on Wednesday. The reports are an indicator of a candidate’s ability to finance an expensive statewide campaign: Six-Year Senate Seat to Replace Alan Cranston

JAN.-MARCH TOTAL JAN.-MARCH CASH RECEIPTS RECEIPTS EXPENSES ON HAND DEMOCRATS Barbara Boxer $1,229,939 $4,006,546 $1,250,927 $1,236,839 Mel Levine 638,798 5,381,634 3,054,136 1,309,406 Leo T. McCarthy 549,738 2,111,690 343,286 1,007,941 REPUBLICANS Sonny Bono 157,584 257,795 126,255 41,954 Tom Campbell 718,327 3,259,100 692,934 2,122,259 Bruce Herschensohn 582,539 1,811,917 647,987 430,930

Two-Year Senate Seat

JAN.-MARCH TOTAL JAN.-MARCH CASH RECEIPTS RECEIPTS EXPENSES ON HAND Joseph M. Alioto 28,270 28,270 24,751 3,518 Gray Davis 339,378 2,176,137 175,794 1,700,206 Dianne Feinstein 1,037,311 3,037,092 633,097 1,170,992 REPUBLICANS Bill Allen 43,880 129,376 41,793 5,528 William Dannemeyer 567,015 2,550,878 1,047,529 29,148 John Seymour 780,021 2,763,874 1,378,670 464,285

Times staff writers Doug Shuit and Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this report.