Feinstein Cranks Up Apparatus for Fund Raising

On a recent two-week swing through 13 California cities, Sen. Dianne Feinstein gladly set aside an hour or two of her hectic schedule for anyone who could round up $20,000 in political contributions among friends and colleagues.

The former San Francisco mayor attended seven fund-raisers within 48 hours during her visit to Los Angeles last month. She mingled with lawyers at the Mt. Washington home of Warner Bros. attorney Dan Garcia, addressed a large group of Hollywood women at the Regency Club, sipped wine with wealthy supporters at the home of Beverly Hills Mayor Vicki Reynolds, chatted about health care reform with concerned physicians in Brentwood and schmoozed with women attorneys at the Biltmore.

The seven events’ total take: $250,000, or enough to buy about four minutes of prime-time ads in the Los Angeles TV market.

Even though statewide polls rate her as California’s most popular politician and she will cruise to victory in the upcoming June 7 Democratic primary, Feinstein figures she needs to raise $30,000 a day between now and November to thwart a potential challenge from Republican multimillionaire Michael Huffington. A first-term Santa Barbara congressman, Huffington has vowed to spend whatever it takes--as much as $15 million or more of his own money--to unseat Feinstein if he wins the GOP primary.

Although most pundits regard Huffington as the underdog in his quest for the Senate, Feinstein is taking no chances. A prodigious fund-raiser, she has raked in $32 million in political contributions since running for governor in 1990--more than any other member of Congress. Feinstein and her campaign staff spend huge amounts of time soliciting contributions, devising innovative ways to recruit new donors and lining up heavyweight rainmakers like President Clinton, who appeared Friday night at a West Los Angeles fund-raiser on her behalf.

Between her full-time Senate duties, Feinstein seizes nearly every free moment to pad her campaign treasury. This means occasionally standing on the sidewalk outside her Capitol Hill office talking on a cellular phone to potential donors or taking most Friday afternoons off to dial for dollars from her Washington townhouse. Monthly trips to California are dominated by fund-raising events.

Feinstein’s approach is paying dividends. Through the end of March, her campaign took in $4.1 million--about $1 million ahead of her pace two years ago when she raised $8.1 million to defeat incumbent John Seymour. This time, she has a goal of $10 million.

“It’s clear that I have to be aggressive in fund raising,” Feinstein said matter-of-factly. “The goal is to go toe-to-toe and to be competitive and to raise whatever I have to raise to win the race.”

Although she says she regrets having to spend so much time raising money, the 60-year-old Feinstein shrugs off the demands of her sixth major political campaign since becoming mayor of San Francisco in 1979. “My frame of mind surprises me that it is as good as it is,” she said. “I’m fairly relaxed. I don’t seem to have the anxiety levels that I’ve had in the past. I don’t know whether it is age or having done it so much.”

Her biggest obstacle, Feinstein said, is complacency. In a year when California Democrats are focused on wresting the governor’s seat from Republican Pete Wilson, Feinstein is finding it a challenge to persuade party loyalists that a popular senator who is expected to win reelection needs their financial backing.

At every opportunity, Feinstein emphasizes the threat posed by Huffington’s wealth. She stresses in fund-raising appeals that she is running against a rich man who could easily outspend her by more than a 2-to-1 margin.

A recent statewide Field Poll will undoubtedly be used to sound a wake-up call among Feinstein supporters. The poll, conducted May 11-16, showed that a commanding 26-point lead (56-30) held by Feinstein in April has dwindled to seven points (48-41) after a $4-million television advertising blitz by Huffington.

“Now people realize this is going to be a tough race,” said Kam Kuwata, Feinstein’s campaign manager.

Entertainment executive Dawn Steel said Huffington’s wealth motivated her to organize last month’s Regency Club breakfast that netted about $50,000 for Feinstein’s campaign. “We can’t let this guy buy his way into the Senate. If he wins, it sends a message that is really scary,” Steel said.

To help reach the $10-million goal, Feinstein has tapped the wallets of big-business and special-interest lobbyists in Washington. Her campaign has received $856,371 in political action committee funds, or 21% of total contributions through the end of March. This is a significant increase from Feinstein’s 1992 Senate race, when only 12% of her contributions came from PACs.

Feinstein expressed little concern in a series of interviews that her campaign has grown more dependent on special-interest money and less dependent on individual donors than when she initially ran for the Senate as an outsider and so-called agent of change. She said she is not beholden to any special interest because her campaign has raised money from a wide range of groups and about 40,000 individuals so far.

“My whole political life, I’ve always been an independent person,” Feinstein said. “Anybody who thinks because they contribute a thousand dollars or $5,000 that it is going to earn a vote, they are absolutely wrong. I take great pride in this. I was that kind of mayor. And I’m that kind of senator.”

Should Feinstein face Huffington in the November election, she can expect a barrage of television commercials attacking her for accepting millions of dollars in special-interest donations.

Huffington charges that Feinstein, as one of the wealthiest members of Congress, can easily afford to refuse special-interest money from unions, health organizations, defense firms, the entertainment industry, lawyers, farmers and other groups that seek her help on legislation.

“She doesn’t have to take the money,” said Huffington, who does not accept PAC donations. “I’m saying to her: ‘If you truly want to be independent and truly want to represent the people of the state who cannot afford high-priced lobbyists and lawyers, you can spend your own money.’ . . . To me, it is a major difference between her and me, and I will point that out constantly in this campaign.”

Feinstein called Huffington’s criticism unfair, saying that her family’s wealth is mostly tied up in her husband’s merchant-banking business.

“I don’t have the ability to go out there and fund this campaign myself,” said Feinstein, who poured $3 million of her own money into her failed bid for governor.

Almost immediately after she was sworn into the Senate in November, 1992, Feinstein began to assemble a formidable fund-raising organization in Washington. Because she filled the remainder of Wilson’s term, Feinstein had only two years--not the traditional six--to gear up for reelection.

Feinstein flew to Florida a few weeks after she arrived in Washington for the first of many weekend fund-raisers in major cities across the country. She also opened a Washington fund-raising office to solicit funds from corporate trade groups and special interests that ply the congressional lobbying circuit. The office was run by Priscilla Burton, Feinstein’s chief fund-raiser--who is paid $10,000 a month--before she moved to campaign headquarters in Los Angeles.

Like many of her colleagues in the Senate, Feinstein hosted a series of receptions to gather PAC donations at prominent Washington spots. Last year, for example, Northrop Corp. paid $1,068 to host a fund-raiser for Feinstein at the Washington Court Hotel. Northrop is one of 23 defense firms that have given Feinstein, a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee, a total of $66,067 in political action committee funds to date. This amount is far more than the $25,350 Feinstein received from defense PACs during the entire 1992 election.

Feinstein also has reached out to California agribusiness, an industry that strongly backed her Republican opponent in 1992. In January, 1993, about 80 farmers attended a reception at the Mapes Ranch in Modesto that raised about $75,000 for Feinstein.

“We realized we needed a voice in the United States Senate,” said John Peace, director of political education for the California Farm Bureau. “We have been extremely happy with Dianne Feinstein’s performance.”

Feinstein has been a champion of agricultural interests in the Senate. She altered her sweeping California desert protection bill to eliminate restrictions on cattle grazing, fought for the continuation of unpopular government subsidies for wool and mohair ranchers, and swiftly relayed farmers’ concerns regarding Medfly infestation to Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, Peace said.

Farmers have reciprocated. So far, agricultural PACs have donated $93,043 to Feinstein. This makes up 11% of her PAC receipts, a steep increase compared to 1992, when farmers provided only 2% of Feinstein’s PAC money.

Feinstein’s reliance on political action committees follows a consistent pattern for newly elected members of Congress once they get to Washington, according to advocates of campaign reform.

“She is an outsider no longer and the way she raises money reflects that,” said Ellen Miller, director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. “We see it all the time. The longer they stay in Congress, the more their campaign coffers are filled by the economic interests that have business before Congress.”

But campaign finance experts say it should come as no surprise that Feinstein’s fund-raising profile changed once she entered the Senate. They note that, whenever a sitting senator is challenged by a wealthy opponent with access to unlimited funds, the incumbent has little choice but to build a sufficient war chest.

“If you’re an incumbent and you are sitting there with $6 (million) or $8 million and your opponent has twice that much, you start getting scared,” said Herbert E. Alexander, director of USC’s Citizens’ Research Foundation. “So I don’t fault her at all for doing what she can to raise money.”

For her part, Feinstein seems oblivious to criticism that she is becoming too reliant on special-interest money. In an interview, she said she was unaware that her campaign had raised $856,371 from PACs, suggesting the figure was less than half that amount. Nor does Feinstein intend to limit the amount of PAC money she receives, despite supporting campaign finance reform legislation that would ban PAC giving.

“I haven’t been part of the Washington scene for that long (so) that’s not really part of my fund-raising base,” Feinstein said. “I am taking PAC money to the extent to which I can get (it). . . . There’s some we won’t take.”

Feinstein said she refuses to accept PAC money from three special interests--makers of tobacco products, oil companies and a third group she could not immediately recall. Campaign manager Kuwata identified the three groups as tobacco interests, pro-gun lobbyists, and savings and loan associations--all groups that are unlikely to give to Feinstein in the first place.

Records show that Feinstein’s campaign refunded contributions to cigarette makers Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco.

The vast majority of Feinstein’s contributions come from individuals who mail in checks and supporters who meet the senator at receptions. Whenever Feinstein travels to California, she attempts to squeeze in as many events as possible for groups that can muster at least $20,000.

Her task is made more difficult by federal limits on contributions. Individuals may only donate $1,000 per candidate for primary and general elections, and PACs are limited to $5,000 apiece. No such limits apply to races for state office in California.

“The California gubernatorial race was easy to raise money for compared to this,” Feinstein said. “This is hard.”

With a Democrat in the White House, however, Feinstein is getting her share of assistance. In November, the President appeared at a San Francisco fund-raiser for Feinstein that yielded $700,000. Clinton was expected to raise another $700,000 for Feinstein at Friday’s $1,000-per-head event at the West Los Angeles home of Ron Burkle, Feinstein’s campaign finance chairman, who owns the Food 4 Less grocery chain.

Still, Feinstein has invested at least $1.3 million in campaign funds to raise money, records show. This compares to only $123,248 in total fund-raising expenses for Huffington, who has written personal checks to his campaign totaling $4.2 million.

So far, Huffington has raised only $153,153 in individual contributions of $200 or more, records show. Huffington’s enormous wealth, combined with his willingness to finance his own campaign, affords him the luxury of not having to worry about fund raising.

“I’d rather meet the people and get out the word I care about them and the future of our state,” Huffington said.

Times staff researcher Murielle Gamache contributed to this article.

Feinstein Contributors

Sen. Dianne Feinstein believes she will have to raise more than $30,000 a day between now and November to finance her campaign against the Republican challenger. Here is an accounting of her contributions so far.

1992 % 1994 % Individuals $200 or more $4,195,648 52% $1,979,302 48% Individuals less than $200 $2,545,142 31% $1,208,889 29% PACs $941,048 12% $856,371 21% Other $433,029 5% $99,221 2% Total $8,114,867 100% $4,143,783 100%

PARTIAL PAC BREAKDOWN

1992 % 1994 % Unions $308,052 33% $215,600 25% Financial interests $113,500 12% $77,500 9% Health care $101,007 11% $86,000 10% Women’s groups $70,835 8% $29,000 3% Defense $25,350 3% $66,067 8% Agriculture $21,250 2% $93,043 11%

Source: Times analysis of Federal Election Commission records through March 31.