Candidates in Valley Races Relying on Loans to Fund Campaigns : Politics: Finance disclosure reports are filed. Contenders cite tough financial times, crowded fields.

Campaign finance reports filed Tuesday reveal that candidates for several high-profile San Fernando Valley-based seats are relying heavily on borrowed money to finance their political quests, with one tapping his own wallet for $125,000 while another got a $275,000 loan from a friend.

Candidates say tough financial times and a plethora of office seekers and races have forced them to increasingly finance their own campaigns or turn to family and friends.

“The number of nights that we can hold a fund-raiser and not have it conflict with other fund-raisers are few and far between,” said Adam Schiff, a former assistant U.S. attorney who is running in the Democratic primary for the 43rd District state Assembly seat formerly held by Pat Nolan.

Schiff has borrowed $50,000, at 4% interest, from his family to finance his campaign.

Tuesday was the deadline for filing campaign finance disclosure reports for the 13 candidates seeking Nolan’s old seat, based in the Glendale-Burbank area, and the 10 candidates running for the 41st District seat held by state Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Brentwood). The reports were for the period Jan. 1 to March 17.

Nolan was forced to resign last month after pleading guilty to one count of political racketeering, while Friedman is running for a Superior Court judgeship.

The biggest borrower in the two hotly contested races was Peter Repovich, an LAPD officer with sizable real estate investments, who borrowed $275,000 from Susan E. Barnes, a Los Angeles therapist, at 7% interest to get his campaign for the 43rd District going. Repovich also has raised $71,000 in direct contributions from dozens of donors, giving him a war chest of $346,000 to run against seven others in the GOP primary.

Having little to show in his fund-raising statement was Municipal Court Judge James E. Rogan, who was strongly endorsed earlier this month at a mini-convention of area Republicans for the 43rd District seat.

Rogan said he did not seek the Nolan seat until the last minute and thus was able to raise only $10,578 before the filing period ended for the current reports.

A report for Julia Wu, a Los Angeles Community College candidate also running for the Nolan seat, was not available Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in the 41st District, attorney Edward Tabash of Malibu took the lead in fund raising among those running in the Democratic primary when he pumped $125,000 of his own money into the campaign in the form of a no-interest loan.

Others in the 41st District Democratic primary also relied heavily on borrowing to put together their war chests.

Law professor Sheila Kuehl reported that she raised a total of $70,425, with $20,000 of this being a loan; businessman John Shallman’s entire campaign war chest of $20,525 came from a loan to himself; and attorney Bill Rothbard reported that $15,000 of his $85,000 came from a loan to himself.

“Fund raising is particularly hard now because of the tight economy due to the recession and to the earthquake damage,” Rothbard said Tuesday.

“There’s also incredible competition for financial resources because of the crowded election year,” he added. In addition to the statewide elections for U.S. Senate and governor, Los Angeles has a bumper crop of sharply fought local elections this year, including one to recall state Sen. David Roberti (D-Van Nuys).

But Rothbard added, “Having to borrow is an indication of one’s political support or lack thereof.”

Republican candidates for the 41st seat could not be reached for comment.

Finally, Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky has continued to extend his vast fund-raising lead over his opponents for the 3rd District seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Yaroslavsky reported Tuesday that he had raised $176,000 during the last two and half months, bringing his total for the campaign to $900,000. Former Fire Capt. Don Wallace, widely seen as Yaroslavsky’s nearest competition, has raised only $16,500 for his campaign.