Yaroslavsky Has Outspent Rivals in Heated 5th District Race : Elections: Candidate tops $300,000 mark. City matching funds give boost to other council hopefuls.

With only days to go before Election Day, the race for the 5th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council has reached a feverish final phase as the wife of the seat’s longtime incumbent, Zev Yaroslavsky, surpassed $300,000 in spending, campaign reports showed this week.

The campaign spending milestone for Barbara Yaroslavsky puts her at a decided advantage in the bid to win the seat vacated when her husband was elected a county supervisor. Still, two other 5th District candidates also have waged expensive campaigns, thanks in part to the city matching funds authorized under campaign finance reforms approved by voters five years ago.

Meantime, the matching funds also have loomed significant in the 10th District race, in which incumbent Nate Holden is fighting a challenge by attorney and former mayoral candidate Stan Sanders.

In Tuesday’s other races, council members Mark Ridley-Thomas, Ruth Galanter and John Ferraro are facing challengers who have not raised enough money for high-profile campaigns.

That has not been the case, however, in the 5th District, which includes parts of Westwood, the Fairfax district and Sherman Oaks.

Reports filed with the city’s Ethics Commission show that Yaroslavsky, who has not taken any city matching funds, raised $360,698 as of March 25. Candidate Mike Feuer was second in fund raising with $299,126, and Roberta Weintraub was close behind with $274,228. Both of their totals include matching funds.

Rounding out the list is candidate Jeff Brain, who reported $41,521 in contributions.

Feuer, former executive director of Bet Tzedek Legal Foundation for the poor, elderly and disabled, has been mounting an aggressive mail campaign and can continue to do so. He reported $114,479 available at the end of the filing period, compared to $112,391 for Yaroslavsky.

To date, Feuer has received $100,000 in matching funds, the maximum allowed under city law. His war chest, along with a key endorsement from longtime Councilman Marvin Braude, gives Feuer a stronger shot at forcing a runoff in June. “If it weren’t for the matching funds, we’d be running a different kind of campaign. It would be very difficult,” said Larry Levine, Feuer’s consultant.

The better-known Weintraub, a former Los Angeles Unified School District board member, entered the final weeks of the race with more cash than anyone: $141,070. She, too, has benefited from matching funds, receiving $88,296. Weintraub plans an all-out mail campaign.

Brain, a Sherman Oaks real estate broker and the only Republican in the race, has applied late in the campaign for $20,000 in matching funds. As of March 25, he had only $6,707 in funding. But Brain believes he remains competitive, pointing to additional money that has come his way in recent days and endorsements from fellow Republicans.

“For a fraction of the money, I have run a very effective campaign and I have remained very viable, and that’s a quality that perhaps, in itself, should be appreciated in a council candidate,” Brain said.

Recent campaign statements show that Yaroslavsky, who has declined to take matching funds and criticizes her opponents for doing so, continues to enjoy the largesse routinely accorded to front-runners, snapping up donations from prominent City Hall players such as Airport Commission President Ted Stein and developer Eli Broad.

In the 10th District, which includes the Crenshaw district, Koreatown and West Adams, Holden faces a tough challenge from attorney Sanders. A third candidate, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin Ross, has cobbled together $4,225 from personal loans and donations, barely enough to run a race.

Sanders has drawn liberally from matching funds, enough to keep his high-spending campaign--$203,056 at last count--afloat. Although he entered the final weeks having raised $219,401, he had only a fraction of that amount on hand. He promptly requested and got additional matching funds, bringing his total in matching funds to $69,670. The money will give him a fighting chance against Holden, who had $142,662 to spend on the final push.

Sanders draws support from several prominent Westsiders, including Joseph T. Edmiston of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, former Police Commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum and Beverly Hills Mayor Vicki Reynolds.

Holden continues to lead in fund raising, $294,298 to date, but has not spent as much, only $152,012 to date. His support has come from transit companies, waste haulers and public employee unions.