ELECTIONS / 24TH CONGRESSIONAL RACE : McClintock Hired Firm to Solicit PAC Funds : A campaign consulting company says it has contacted more than 500 political action groups on behalf of the Republican candidate.

Republican congressional candidate Tom McClintock, criticized by his Democratic rival for accepting campaign donations from special-interest groups, has hired a consultant who solicited money from more than 500 political action committees, or PACs, representing business and conservative groups.

McClintock, who has said publicly that PAC money gravitates to him because of his long record as a conservative, pro-business legislator, confirmed in an interview that he hired Dan Morgan & Associates, a Chantilly, Va., firm that specializes in campaign fund raising. McClintock said his campaign has paid the firm $3,000 so far.

A conservative Republican assemblyman from Thousand Oaks, McClintock is locked in a close race with Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson, a liberal Democrat from Los Angeles, in the 24th Congressional District, which runs from Sherman Oaks to Malibu and north to Thousand Oaks.

Beilenson, a nine-term incumbent, is one of the few members of Congress who does not accept contributions from PACs, the political arms of corporations, labor unions and other interest groups. He has repeatedly attacked McClintock for accepting PAC donations, saying they give special interests undue influence over lawmakers.

Morgan said he has contacted 500 to 700 PACs on McClintock’s behalf, including those representing oil companies, home builders, small-business owners and the National Right to Work Committee, which opposes unions.

Morgan and McClintock said they did not know how much campaign money Morgan’s efforts have yielded. They said neither of them offered any quid pro quos to PACs, which often represent groups whose interests can be affected by federal legislation or regulatory actions.

“Any candidate who would do that sort of thing, I would not work with . . . Tom is not one to sell himself out,” Morgan said. “He’s not going to be the kind of traditional politician that Washington has had.”

Throughout his 10-year career in the Legislature, McClintock has drawn campaign contributions from conservative and pro-business PACs. He received money this year from the California Pro-Life Council, American Bankers Assn., Conservative National Committee, Exxon Corp., National Rifle Assn. and National Beer Wholesalers’ Assn.

McClintock insisted that there is nothing improper about his solicitation of such donations, which are legal. He said PACs represent not only large corporations and business groups, but employees and other individuals.

But Beilenson campaign manager Craig Miller accused McClintock of engaging in “corrupt fund-raising practices,” saying McClintock’s solicitation of PAC money leaves him “totally indebted to special-interest groups” at the expense of ordinary citizens.

“McClintock is selling out before he even gets to Washington,” Miller said.

McClintock called Beilenson a “complete phony,” saying that although the congressman does not take PAC money, he accepts donations from individuals who are asked to give by the interest groups to which they belong.

He cited a recent $125-a-head fund-raiser held for Beilenson by Agoura Hills attorney George H. Nicoletti, who asked local trial lawyers and their spouses to attend. He also said the head of a local Sierra Club chapter had urged members to give money or work as volunteers for Beilenson’s campaign.

“I don’t know of any special interest more destructive than lawyers,” said McClintock, who has campaigned for litigation limits.

Miller responded that accepting money from individual environmentalists and lawyers is “far different” from accepting money from PACs, whose representatives he said are certain to “come calling once you’re in office to try and sway your vote on issues.”

Miller said “about four people” showed up for the Nicoletti reception and that Beilenson does not take money from lawyers who are Washington lobbyists.

McClintock said his campaign sends PACs copies of a campaign prospectus touting his reputation as an anti-tax crusader and offering reasons why he believes he can beat Beilenson.

Most observers regard the race as a tossup because voter registration in the district is 45% Democratic and slightly less than 42% Republican. According to conventional political wisdom, a district must be 56% Democratic to be a safe Democratic seat but only 43% to be a GOP stronghold, since a higher proportion of Republicans traditionally go to the polls.

The race, McClintock’s prospectus said, “will be waged in a Republican-leaning, middle-class district between a young, conservative maverick and a typical liberal incumbent.”

But the document also carries results from an opinion poll taken last winter that shows Beilenson beating McClintock, 26.9% to 20%, if the election had been held at that time.