L.A. ELECTIONS : Connections Seen as Key in 5th District Fund Raising : Campaign: Experts say some Barbara Yaroslavsky donors may be seeking influence with her husband. Many of Feuer’s contributors have volunteered at the legal clinic he directed.

She is a longtime volunteer at a local free clinic and a mother of two who has been active in her children’s PTA and her Neighborhood Watch.

She also has raised more than $587,000 in her first bid for political office this year, besting every other Los Angeles candidate on the ballot, including campaign veterans.

For anyone else, the feat would have been astonishing. But not for Barbara Yaroslavsky, the wife of Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a powerful and influential member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board and former councilman.

Although Barbara Yaroslavsky attributes her fund-raising skills to her many years generating financial support for the Los Angeles Free Clinic and other nonprofit organizations, academics and political consultants say her husband plays a key role in her fund-raising success.

“If you have a close relative in public office and you run for public office, people will respond,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst and senior associate at the Claremont Graduate School.

As is the case throughout the political world, relationships and connections are playing an instrumental part in raising money in the 5th District City Council race, where both candidates have raised large amounts, especially for novice politicians.

Mike Feuer, Yaroslavsky’s opponent, has built a sizable war chest by taking advantage of contributions and other assistance from lawyers who have volunteered or now work at Bet Tzedek, the nonprofit legal aid clinic that he directed for eight years before resigning to seek the council post.

So far, Yaroslavsky has held the upper hand in fund raising, collecting $412,000 in the primary and $175,000 so far in the runoff campaign. Feuer raised $308,000 in the primary, including $100,000 in city matching funds, and $180,900, including $73,400 in matching funds, in the runoff. Yaroslavsky has declined to accept matching funds.

Despite an almost $100,000 lead in fund raising, Yaroslavsky drew 26% of the vote in the April 11 primary, a distant second to Feuer, who got 39%. They will face each other in the June 6 runoff.

Political consultants and academics say Yaroslavsky may be benefiting from those who contribute to her campaign because they believe they can win points with her husband.

“It is a really unusual election, because she is a novice but she is running with the reputation of an insider,” said Raphael Sonenshein, a political science professor at Cal State Fullerton.

A source close to the MTA, where Zev Yaroslavsky is a member of the board’s influential construction committee, said that contributing to Barbara Yaroslavsky’s campaign is seen as a double-edged benefit by firms seeking to do business with the agency.

“There is the belief that it’s a ‘two-fer,’ ” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

Under a new lobbying restriction, Zev Yaroslavsky and the other members of the construction committee are prohibited from taking any contributions from companies that have contracts pending before the MTA. But during the past six months, at least 11 companies that sought an MTA contract contributed at least $500 each to Barbara Yaroslavsky’s campaign.

For example, Martin & Huang International donated $500 to her campaign in December and came before the MTA in February seeking an architectural and engineering job, which it eventually won.

King Huang, a partner in the firm, said his company contributed to Yaroslavsky on the suggestion of an architect who has worked with his firm in the past. But he said there was never a suggestion that the donation would improve his chances of getting the contract.

“We have a good reputation,” he said, explaining why his company has won several MTA contracts. “We do good work.”

Other firms that have sought contracts with the MTA and have contributed to Barbara Yaroslavsky’s campaign also reject suggestions that the money was used to win points with her husband.

Zev Yaroslavsky conceded that his wife may be getting contributions from firms and individuals who believe they can curry his favor with their money. But he said: “I think they are mistaken.”

For her part, Barbara Yaroslavsky attributes her flush campaign coffers in large part to her fund-raising skills and contacts she has made as a regular volunteer at the Los Angeles Free Clinic.

The clinic’s budget was $4 million last year and Yaroslavsky organized some of the biggest fund-raisers.

“I have been fund raising for at least 20 years,” she said.

But she concedes that some of her contributors are from firms and individuals she has met through her husband. Some contributors, she said, may even believe they will win points with Zev Yaroslavsky by giving to her campaign,.

“I’ve gotten money from people who have all sorts of reasons to give money,” she said.

“But if you give me $500 and a hundred other people also give me $500, do you think I’m going to remember you?”

Feuer attributes part of his fund-raising success to the skills he honed as director of the nonprofit legal clinic.

As head of the organization, he said, he was part of a team that sought grants and organized dinners and other fund-raising events to meet Bet Tzedek’s annual $3-million budget.

At least 35% of his contributions thus far have come from attorneys, including at least 43 individual donations from lawyers who have volunteered at the legal clinic in the past year, according to campaign statements.