Senate Race Sets Record at $27 Million and Rising : Campaign: Huffington has outspent Feinstein nearly 2 to 1 in costliest congressional contest, records show.

California’s U.S. Senate race has set a record for the most expensive congressional contest in history even before entering the final and most costly month of campaigning, according to finance records released Monday.

By Sept. 30, the last day of the finance reporting period, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her Republican challenger, Rep. Mike Huffington, had spent more than $27 million, breaking a 10-year-old record set when Sen. Jesse A. Helms (R-N.C.) and his opponent combined to spend $25.9 million.

The new reports also indicate that Huffington, a wealthy freshman congressman from Santa Barbara, set another national record for the most money ever spent by an individual congressional candidate.

Huffington’s campaign has cost more than $18 million, with all but $1.2 million coming out of the candidate’s pocket.

That is about double the amount reported Monday by Feinstein, who now looks like a political pauper despite her reputation as one of the top fund-raisers in Washington. Feinstein, who holds a narrow lead in recent opinion polls, has spent about $9.1 million on the race, including almost $1 million she has contributed to her own campaign.

“The day when Mr. Smith could go to Washington, if that was ever true, passed a long time ago in California,” Democratic political consultant Darry Sragow said of the reports. “I think the amount of money being spent here--and the nature of the campaign, which is something less than inspirational--will increase cynicism and decrease participation. This is not a plus for the process.”

Every day since Jan. 1 the Senate candidates have spent an average of almost $100,000, the reports indicate. Huffington’s daily rate for the year is almost $65,000, compared to about $33,000 for Feinstein.

Huffington entered the race almost entirely unknown and spent much of his money during the Republican primary last spring, when Feinstein was unopposed and largely absent from the campaign trail. In the last reporting period from July 1 to Sept. 30, Feinstein’s per-day average increased to about $50,000, compared to about $70,000 for Huffington.

The enormous cost of the Senate race is due almost entirely to the months of television commercials each candidate is purchasing in California’s five major media markets. The campaigns have been spending $500,000 to $1 million per week on television. With a tight race in the final weeks, that spending will rise.

Even more than most statewide campaigns, the Senate race is becoming known for its reliance on television instead of personal appearances and for the hostile tone of the commercials.

The campaign’s high price has become an issue between the candidates and has fueled a debate about the problems inherent in a system that requires candidates to have huge sums of money to be viable contenders.

Huffington has criticized Feinstein for relying on powerful special interests to finance her campaign, while the incumbent has accused Huffington of trying to buy a Senate seat with his Texas oil and gas fortune.

“It is very undemocratic to have wealth and access to wealth be the determinant in who is a viable candidate,” said Josh Goldstein, a director at the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington. “That basically excludes the vast majority of people and it means that voters are really just ratifying the choices that money has made.”

Feinstein’s report indicated that the senator had just $218,000 left in cash about two weeks ago. However, her campaign said it is convinced it will be able to keep up with Huffington in the three weeks remaining before the Nov. 8 election.

But Feinstein campaign manager Kam Kuwata acknowledged that the campaign is still trying to raise the money it will need in the final weeks. He said many Democratic contributors need to be persuaded that Feinstein needs their help.

“We worry all the time about complacency because, even though our supporters look at him and say, ‘He’s nothing’--he is a rich nothing,” Kuwata said. “There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t talk to people who say, ‘There is no way he can win.’ And I say, ‘He’s trying to buy this election.’ ”

Huffington campaign officials said their spending was necessary because Feinstein had spent millions to become known in two previous statewide campaigns.

“Huffington has had to invest his own money in his campaign because he’s battling a career incumbent,” said GOP spokeswoman Jennifer Grossman. “Mike Huffington . . . is a citizen who has entered politics and, to be competitive in a state with a population as enormous as California’s . . . it is very expensive.”

Before Monday’s reports, the most money a candidate had ever reported spending on a congressional race was Helms’ contest in 1990. The conservative North Carolina senator, fueled by a nationwide appeal for direct mail contributions, spent about $17.9 million in his last bid for election against Democrat Harvey Gantt, a former mayor of Charlotte.

This year, Virginia Republican Senate nominee Oliver L. North has tapped a similar vein of conservative contributions that have generated $15.2 million for his campaign. Washington political observers have been expecting both North and Huffington to break the previous record for an individual high-spending mark.

Before the Senate race began, Huffington held the record for the most expensive House race. In his first bid for public office in 1992, he spent $5.2 million of his own money--about double the previous national record--to unseat a veteran GOP incumbent.

Huffington, whose fortune is estimated at about $75 million, said during his recent debate with Feinstein that he is likely to spend more than $20 million on his Senate race. Based on his last report, however, California political watchers believe his total will be much higher.

Feinstein’s campaign has estimated that it will spend between $12 million and $15 million on the race all together.

Campaign experts also note that in evaluating Huffington’s spending, it is significant that he has spent little on fund raising. Most campaigns have to spend a significant amount to raise money by either holding lavish events or using extensive mailing lists to reach their supporters.

The cost of fund raising varies among campaigns, but one expert said that candidates generally keep about 80 cents for every dollar contributed. That amount is higher later in the campaign, when interest in the race develops and money is easier to raise.

“It is time for a reality check here,” Sragow said about the campaign’s cost. “The amount of money spent on this Senate race could feed a small nation for a year. The amount of money Dianne Feinstein has put into this race may pale by comparison to Huffington, but by the standards of 99% of Americans, it is still a huge amount. And the fact that that amount would be viewed as a mere pittance is a reflection of just how skewed the process really is.”