CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / U.S. SENATE : Huffington Outspends Feinstein 3 to 1 on Television Ads

Outspending incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein by nearly 3 to 1 on television advertising, Republican Mike Huffington has poured a record $20 million into such commercials so far in his campaign for U.S. Senate.

No candidate in the history of congressional elections has come close to spending even half as much as Huffington on TV ads, according to a review of federal election records.

Huffington gave his campaign $2.5 million last week, bringing his total contributions to $27.3 million--the most ever by a Senate candidate, according to documents made available by the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday. Adding in the $11 million spent by Feinstein, the California Senate race already ranks as the most expensive in U.S. history.

The ability of the Santa Barbara tycoon to tap his estimated $70-million oil fortune gives him a huge advantage over Feinstein, who is spending substantial sums of money to raise funds. This is especially critical, political experts say, now that Huffington is seeking to recover from recent disclosures that he hired an illegal immigrant to care for his two daughters.

“He’s got the money to try to overcome it,” said Herbert Alexander, a USC political scientist. “That is the point. It is not a situation where, if he was dependent on money from others and his campaign got into trouble, the money would dry up. The money hasn’t dried up because it’s his money.”

Since Huffington has spent virtually nothing to raise money, he had sunk $20,016,562 into broadcast advertising through Oct. 19. That accounts for nearly 80% of his overall spending. Feinstein has invested $7 million in broadcast ads, or 63% of her overall expenditures.

The amount of money used for TV commercials in previous high-spending Senate races pales in comparison to Huffington’s expenditures. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) led all Senate candidates in outlays for broadcast advertising in 1990 with $5 million, and Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) spent the most in 1992 with $5.7 million.

This year, Virginia Senate candidate Oliver North has raised the most money--$17.6 million--after Huffington. But because North has been forced to spend $9.2 million on direct-mail fund raising, his campaign has placed only $3.2 million into developing and placing broadcast ads.

Huffington campaign official Ken Khachigian argues that the Santa Barbara congressman has spent less TV money per vote than other wealthy Senate candidates. Helms spent $2.47 on media for each of the 2 million votes cast in North Carolina in 1992. Assuming that the turnout in California approaches the 9.9 million votes cast in 1992, Huffington so far has spent about $2.01 per vote.

In a normal year, Feinstein’s $7 million in broadcast advertising expenses would be considered enormous. In knocking off incumbent Sen. John Seymour in 1992, she spent only $3.3 million on television advertising.

But this is no ordinary election year.

Huffington’s broadcast advertising costs are nearly half as much as the $46.1 million spent by all Senate incumbents in 1992. Moreover, many political experts predict that Huffington could surpass $30 million before the election is over.

Huffington’s media blitz has included payments of $19.5 million to Farrell Media of New York for placing his television and radio spots. Gannon, McCarthy, Mason of Washington has billed Huffington $220,000 for creating the ads.

Huffington also has spent $611,147 on polling, or more than four times the amount that Senate incumbents in hotly contested races spent in 1992. While large sums are used to measure Huffington’s public standing, the polling money undoubtedly has allowed his campaign to test its advertising message with focus groups to a degree unmatched by any other candidate.

The unprecedented TV spending permitted Huffington to breeze to an easy primary victory in June over Republican William E. Dannemeyer and to catch up to Feinstein in statewide polls by establishing name recognition.

But the edge that comes with having an open checkbook may be reduced during the final week of the campaign as political candidates in all statewide races compete to purchase prime-time advertising.

“The thing (Huffington) is going to run into is that the inventory stations have becomes very limited,” said Edward Blakely, a Republican media consultant in Washington. “I don’t care how much money you have. There’s only so much time you can buy.”