ELECTIONS : GOP to Aid Brooks’ Race for House : Dole, Gingrich, Kemp will campaign for Rancho Palos Verdes challenger. Democratic incumbent Harman downplays the impact.

Rancho Palos Verdes Councilwoman Susan Brooks has insisted all year that the national Republican Party would come to her aid in her race against Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills).

This Saturday, she will have her proof: Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) plans to campaign for her at a fund-raiser in Manhattan Beach. And House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Jack Kemp, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, are scheduled to stump for her in October.

Brooks’ campaign says the parade of Republican stalwarts shows that national party officials have clearly targeted Harman for defeat.

“The national Republican Party is taking this race very seriously,” said John Perkins, Brooks’ campaign manager. “We’re on their top five list (of targeted races) in the state. . . .”

A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee confirmed that the group views the 36th Congressional District contest as one of the most competitive of 52 House races in California. But the spokesman, Dan Leonard, added that committee officials won’t decide until the end of September how much time and money to invest in Brooks’ campaign.

Democrats, meanwhile, contend that national Republicans are exaggerating their interest in the race and in the end will invest their energies in other districts across the country. Brooks--who is campaigning for her first elective office beyond the Palos Verdes Peninsula--is merely a “sacrificial candidate,” said Bob Mulholland, campaign adviser for the state Democratic Party.

The national GOP “will pretend they are (targeting the race), and the Republican candidate’s campaign will think they are, but in the last week the candidate’s campaign won’t get their phone calls returned,” he said.

Harman has had a much larger campaign fund than Brooks. At the end of June, she had a little more than $400,000. Brooks had $2,600 when she emerged from a bruising primary battle with former Palos Verdes Estates Councilman Ron Florance. She has raised about $50,000 since then, Perkins said.

Each party’s national political committees can contribute $5,000 in cash to a candidate. The parties can provide other campaign help for a candidate, but joint expenses such as campaign mailers and advertisements cannot exceed $29,300 in California.

Instead, candidates often depend on national personalities to boost their stature and raise individual contributions.

Some Republicans also predict that Brooks should benefit if Republican Gov. Pete Wilson does well in the South Bay in his reelection campaign.

“If Pete Wilson can carry the district by a significant margin, as long as a Republican (like Brooks) runs a decent campaign, I think the Republican can win,” said Republican consultant Allan Hoffenblum, who worked for Florance in the primary.

By contrast, he said, Harman cannot depend on any Democratic coattails to help her race. Many freshman Democratic House members have tried to distance themselves from President Clinton, whose popularity has declined in much of the nation.

Harman “ran an independent campaign two years ago, and she will run an independent campaign again this year,” said her campaign spokesman, Roy Behr.

Brooks has attacked Harman for backing most of Clinton’s legislative proposals, especially his budget plan that narrowly passed in the House last year. Republicans say that the plan has ended up raising taxes for the middle class.

“Those are the kinds of things voters in the district will look at,” Perkins said.

Brooks “has an advantage in that she can bring in the Republican heavyweights,” Hoffenblum said. “Jane Harman has her hands tied. She is representing a political party whose President a majority disapprove of. She has to wage a maverick campaign, independent of the Democratic Party.”

Harman might be doing just that. For instance, Harman is hosting a fund-raiser Friday in Marina del Rey that will include eight other congresswomen elected in 1992 but no members of the Clinton Administration.