Garcetti Bid Got Timely Assist : Politics: Eleventh- hour loans from family and friends helped the primary campaign of contender for district attorney. He outspent Reiner by 2 to 1 for the year, reports show.

Challenger Gil Garcetti’s successful bid in the June primary to force Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner into a runoff election was helped by a late infusion of loans from friends and family, according to recent campaign finance reports.

Garcetti received loans totaling $80,000 during the final 10 days of the hotly contested primary race, pushing his campaign’s total indebtedness to $430,000 for the year, according to the reports, which cover contributions and expenditures from May 17 to June 30. The disclosure statements, required under state law, had to be filed with the state by Friday.

The reports also indicate that Garcetti collected $127,000 in cash donations during the six-week period, all but $21,000 before the primary. Since January, Garcetti has received $332,000 in cash contributions, the reports show.

Garcetti, a veteran county prosecutor who was once Reiner’s chief deputy, finished first in the five-candidate contest June 2, receiving 34% of the vote to Reiner’s 26%. Because none of the candidates mustered a majority, the top two finishers--Garcetti and Reiner--face off in November.

The campaign statements show that Reiner received no loans during the recent reporting period, and collected just $38,000 in cash contributions, for a total of $269,000 since the beginning of the year. Nearly half of the contributions to Reiner during the May-June reporting period were made after the June 2 election, the reports show.

Even so, Reiner outspent Garcetti during the final weeks of the primary campaign, reporting total expenditures of $239,000, compared to Garcetti’s $182,000. Garcetti, however, still maintained a 2-1 spending edge for the year, with total expenditures exceeding $797,000, compared to Reiner’s $333,000, according to the reports.

The 11th-hour infusion of funds to Garcetti’s campaign came from relatives and friends. Garcetti received loans of $25,000 each from Patricia Roth, his mother-in-law, and Rose Miller, a close family friend, and $15,000 from Edward M. Zolla III, a family friend and owner of Horizon Construction, according to the reports.

Garcetti also collected a $10,000 loan from Pepper Edmiston, daughter of Beverly Hills Councilman Maxwell Salter and wife of Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. In addition, the campaign received a $5,000 loan from Harold A. Haytin, chairman of Bankcorp Capital Group, according to the reports.

In the race to succeed retiring county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn in the 2nd District, state Sen. Diane Watson collected $217,000 in cash contributions during the May 17-June 30 period, fueled in part by several large donations from individual supporters, labor unions and political action committees, according to campaign statements filed Friday in that race.

Among the contributions to Watson’s campaign were $5,000 from the Local 660 State and Local Political Fund; $5,000 from the Service Employees Joint Council No. 8; $5,000 from feminist Peg Yorkin; $5,000 from retired businessman Alfred H. King; $3,000 from the Los Angeles County Probation Officers PAC, and $2,500 from the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Assn. PAC.

Former Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who finished second to Watson in the 13-candidate primary and faces her in a November runoff, received $179,000 in cash and other contributions during the six-week period. Among them were a $20,000 loan on May 29 from Hahn’s political committee and a $40,000 donation on May 27 from A. J. Perenchio, a former producer with Embassy Pictures and now an executive with Chartwell Partners in Century City.

Burke outspent Watson during the period by a greater than 2-1 margin ($423,000 to $202,000) and continues to maintain an edge in fund raising for the year, collecting $703,000 in contributions and loans compared with Watson’s $620,000.

Robert Knowles, Watson’s campaign manager, said both candidates have had difficulty raising money since the June primary because of competition for dollars from presidential candidates Bill Clinton and George Bush.

“With the attention focused on the presidential race, reaching large amounts of people will be even more important than in the primary,” Knowles said. “Advertisers and mailers will play a bigger role.”

In the 4th District supervisorial race, challenger Gordana Swanson made a personal loan of more than $43,000 to her campaign during the final days of the primary race and an additional $11,000 less than two weeks after the June 2 election, according to the most recent campaign statements in that race.

Swanson, a Rolling Hills city councilwoman whose surprisingly strong showing in the primary has forced incumbent Supervisor Deane Dana into a November runoff, has lent her campaign $109,500 since the beginning of the year, the reports show. Swanson collected $19,000 in cash contributions during the May-June period, for a total of $78,000 since entering the race.

Fund raising for Swanson’s underdog campaign kept pace with Dana’s during the six-week reporting period--Dana reported $20,000 in cash contributions--but Dana’s war chest from previous months and years gave him a commanding 5-1 edge in spending. Dana reported $407,000 in expenditures during the period, for a year total of $1 million. Swanson reported spending $103,000 for a year total of $186,000.