House, Senate Candidates Are Raising Money at a Record Pace

House and Senate candidates are raising money at a record pace--$90 million above the levels of two years ago--as they compete in a year marked by anti-incumbent fervor.

Challengers, sensing their best chance in years to unseat long-entrenched lawmakers, still trail incumbents in raising money, but are filling their war chests faster than ever. Contestants for open seats--many of which were created by reapportionment following the 1990 Census--also are aggressively collecting funds.

The result is that congressional fund raising increased by 27% in House races and 40% in Senate races during the first 18 months of the 1992 election cycle, a period ending June 30, the government reported Saturday.

California’s two Senate races played a major role in the jump in fund raising. Candidates who competed in the state’s June 2 primary for the two seats accounted for five of the top 10 fund-raisers, including the top four.

Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) led all of the nation’s Senate candidates in fund raising with $5.6 million in receipts through June 30. She won her primary race and faces Republican Bruce Herschensohn for the seat being vacated by Democrat Alan Cranston.

The second and third top fund-raisers were Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica), who garnered $5.5 million in losing to Boxer, and Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Palo Alto), who brought in $5 million in losing to Herschensohn.

Fourth on the list was Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.), who raised $4.8 million in his bid to keep the seat he was appointed to last year. Ranked seventh was former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who is running against Seymour. She raised $4.5 million.

Overall, House and Senate candidates raised $369.3 million and spent $287.6 million through June 30, the FEC reported. That’s $90.2 million more in fund raising and $95.8 million more in spending than the record levels for the first 18 months of the 1990 election, when candidates raised $279.1 million and spent $191.8 million, the FEC said.

House incumbents still hold a substantial fund-raising edge, amassing the top 50 war chests in terms of cash on hand at the end of June and receiving 85% of all political action committee donations.

House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) were the top two fund-raisers during the 18-month period with $2.6 million and $1.4 million in receipts, respectively.

But in terms of spending, topping the list was Republican Michael Huffington, a California businessman bankrolling his own House bid in a district encompassing Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Huffington, who defeated veteran Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino in the June 2 primary, spent $3.4 million as of June 30.