Ex-Fighter Pilot Criticized for His Flight Into Politics : Congress: Some call Bill Spillane a spoiler for entering the 24th District campaign late and placing third. He says he may try for office again.

He was, by his own design, a “stealth” candidate--a decorated fighter pilot who quietly poured at least $200,000 of his life savings into an eleventh-hour, long-shot race in the Republican congressional primary in the 24th District.

Bill Spillane, former Air Force and commercial airline pilot and political unknown, did not win the race. But he did well enough to leave one of his opponent’s consultants angrily calling him a spoiler and Spillane himself thinking about another try.

And, in the process, Spillane took some hard shots at the eventual winner--Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), who had once employed one of Spillane’s sons in Sacramento. Among other things, he called the 35-year-old McClintock “a boy big mouth” who accepts speaking fees from special interests, which Spillane said are tantamount to bribes.

Spillane’s emergence was the most dramatic development in the spirited primary in a newly drawn district that stretches from Sherman Oaks through parts of the southern and western San Fernando Valley out to Malibu and up to Thousand Oaks in Ventura County. This GOP-leaning turf attracted a field of nine candidates who spent a total of more than $1 million in an effort to win the right to oppose longtime Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) in November.

McClintock, the only Republican candidate who had held office, was the favorite on the GOP side. He and Beilenson are expected to engage in a costly, competitive fall campaign.

On May 13, after raising only a few thousand dollars, Spillane lent his campaign $300,000 from funds he had set aside for his retirement. The Thousand Oaks resident said Friday that he actually spent slightly more than $200,000 because he was unable to go through all the money so quickly.

That expenditure helped Spillane win 18% of the vote, finishing third behind McClintock and Sang Korman, a wealthy Calabasas businessman and Korean-American immigrant who also poured money into his own campaign. McClintock took 35%, and Korman took 24% in his third unsuccessful primary bid. Korman’s consultants contend that Spillane did well enough to ensure McClintock’s victory.

“The man threw away $300,000 of his personal money and threw our race down the tubes at the exact same time,” fumed Mark Thompson, Korman’s campaign manager. “And the tragic thing about that for both he and Mr. Korman is that, if he had gone in early and spent that money judiciously in a well-run campaign, he would have had as great a chance of winning as we did, or Tom McClintock, the winner, did.”

Thompson based his analysis on polls that showed Korman’s slickly packaged campaign had him neck-and-neck with McClintock 10 days before the June 2 vote--about the time Spillane’s late mail, radio and television ads really began to hit. The consultant contends that most of Spillane’s 9,525 votes came at Korman’s expense, especially the 7,350 he took in Los Angeles County, where Korman ran more strongly than in Ventura County and where McClintock was not as well-known.

Spillane said he was surprised that he failed to win. But he acknowledged that Thompson “might be right.” He said he had deliberately come in late--at one point telling The Times that he would spend no more than $100,000--to prevent either McClintock or Korman from going after him as a bona fide threat. He said he invested his own funds despite much advice not to do so.

“I just wanted to be the guy who rode in at the last minute to save the maiden,” he said.

Nevertheless, Spillane said Thompson’s comments were disingenuous.

Had Korman won the Republican primary, Spillane said Korman did not have a chance of winning in November.

Korman spent about $400,000--including $370,000 of his own funds.

McClintock said he doubted that Spillane’s candidacy had been a boon to him.

Spillane, who ran for Congress in 1978 in Hawaii, said his son’s experience working for McClintock years earlier had nothing to do with the motivation for his candidacy. Kevin Spillane, 29, now a Sacramento political consultant, got his start walking precincts for McClintock in the conservative assemblyman’s first campaign in 1982.

Republican sources said McClintock fired young Spillane, then a legislative assistant, and a woman with whom Spillane was involved in 1976.

Spillane and his father denied that but acknowledged that the younger Spillane was subsequently dismissed in 1990 by the Assembly Republican caucus. Kevin Spillane said the reason was that he had become “too independent from the chief of staff” of the caucus.

McClintock declined to comment on the circumstances of Spillane’s departure.

Both Spillanes said Kevin had tried to talk his father out of running against McClintock. Kevin Spillane, who specializes in opposition research, said he dug up little on the assemblyman for his father because he believed that McClintock “had done a good job.”

“I wasn’t involved in the campaign,” he said. “I knew it was a waste of money.” He added that he was nonetheless proud of his father’s performance with little outside professional help.

Bill Spillane, who won the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Flying Cross twice in his 32 years with the Air Force and Air National Guard, flew commercially for Pan Am before its demise. He said he and his wife plan to establish a foreign trade business.

He said he would support McClintock for the November election--even though Beilenson “has a tremendous amount of ammunition” against him--but would not rule out challenging the Republican in two years if he’s elected. He said he would “absolutely” consider opposing Beilenson in 1994 if the Democrat wins a ninth term this year.

Spillane wasn’t the only 24th District candidate whose thirst for public office remained unquenched.

Sherman Oaks attorney Nicholas T. Hariton, who raised and spent $145,000 and won only 1,605 votes--a staggering cost of $90.34 per vote--said he, too, was already contemplating a future bid.

“It was a tremendous experience,” said Hariton, who left a downtown law firm to run. “With term limits and the anti-incumbent feeling, there will be very interesting opportunities.”