ELECTIONS / ASSEMBLY 43RD DISTRICT : Schiff Plays Catch-Up in Last-Minute Funds Race

State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown has made a sizable last-minute campaign contribution to Adam Schiff, the Democratic candidate in the 43rd Assembly District, turning that Glendale-Burbank contest into a battle between rival state party organizations.

Late contribution reports obtained Tuesday from the secretary of state’s office showed that the Assembly Democrats Victory Fund donated $12,500 to Schiff, a former federal prosecutor who is trying to unseat freshman Assemblyman James Rogan (R-Glendale).

Brown (D-San Francisco) is the key player in determining how Victory Fund money is spent.

The secretary of state’s log also showed a $12,500 donation from another Brown-controlled political committee, but the Schiff campaign said that donation had not actually been made.

Still, the state Democratic Party is lagging far behind its GOP counterpart in financing its champion in the 43rd District race.

The late contribution reports show that state Assemblyman James Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga, the GOP minority leader, pumped another $45,000 in party funds into Rogan’s treasury Saturday, nearly doubling the amount he has contributed to the incumbent. During the first three weeks of October, Brulte’s committee gave $58,000 to the Rogan campaign, according to finance reports filed last week.

Rogan has found himself embroiled in a fierce fight to hold onto the seat he won in a special election last May to fill a vacancy created when Pat Nolan resigned in February after pleading guilty to a charge of political corruption.

The late contribution reports filed as of Tuesday bring Rogan’s campaign spending to at least $435,000 and Schiff’s to nearly $228,000.

Late contribution reports must be filed within 24 hours when a contributor donates more than $1,000 to the campaign after the deadline--Oct. 22 in this race--for filing the last full campaign finance report.

Often some of the biggest and most controversial donations are made in the final days of a campaign.

The reports show that Rogan has so far received at least $58,000 in late contributions, while Schiff has received $38,000, with both sides picking up political action committee donations. Rogan’s PAC money is coming largely from business groups, while Schiff’s has come from labor unions.

The latest disclosures provoked predictable sniping between the campaigns. “Adam Schiff has accused us of taking special interest money, but his reports show he is taking it too,” said Natalie Blanning, Rogan’s campaign manager.

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Blanning cited, for example, a late contribution of $4,000 from the California State Employees Assn. PAC and $1,000 apiece contributions from Local 770, United Food Workers PAC, the California State Council of Carpenters PAC and the United Auto Workers Region 6 PAC.

“Schiff has accused us of being the tools of conservatives for taking their money. Does this mean he’s the slave of labor?” Blanning said.

But Steve Gray-Barkan, a Schiff political consultant, said that the only PAC money received by Rogan that the Schiff campaign has criticized was given to the incumbent by Allied Business PAC, a committee whose funds come from four conservative Christian businessmen. This PAC and its individual members and their wives have given more than $35,000 to Rogan.

“Their PAC money is different from ours because it comes from the radical right and from four businessmen who live outside the district,” Gray-Barkan said. “Our labor PAC money comes from working men and women, many of whom live inside the district.”

Blanning said she expected Willie Brown and the state Democratic Party to dump much more money into the Schiff campaign than the amount reported so far.