To the GOP Victors Go the Spoils in Congressional Fund Raising

VOTER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?: Majority status has been good to local Republican congressmen, who have hauled in hefty campaign contributions since the GOP swept both houses last fall.

Midyear financial reports filed with the Federal Election Commission put Rep. Howard (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) at the head of the pack among local legislators with $90,862 in contributions since the beginning of the year. McKeon is also a member of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Incumbent Support Fund, which raises money for incumbent lawmakers in tough races nationwide.

Following not far behind is Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale), with $64,450 in contributions. That’s not bad for a man who has not yet officially decided whether to seek a 13th term in 1996.

Moorhead’s two potential Democratic challengers have their work cut out for them between now and Election Day. Barry Gordon, president of the Screen Actors Guild, has raised just $6,450--including $500 from actor Ed Asner--as of the end of June. Doug Kahn, who unsuccessfully tried to unseat Moorhead last fall, reported no contributions so far this year.

Democratic incumbents were raising money as well, and their results have been correlated with how tough their reelections are expected to be next year.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), who faced no serious challenge last fall, has raised just $3,300 this year, while Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) has been busy dialing for dollars, with $63,660 coming in so far. Beilenson’s challenger, Rich Sybert, raised $28,767. A report for Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) was not on file.

The bad news for all the lawmakers is they have a long way to go in fund raising over the next year and a half. A typical congressional race costs between $500,000 and $1 million.

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CONTAMINATING CUTS: The San Fernando Valley’s Superfund sites will not receive the attention they need, says the Environmental Protection Agency, if the Senate sustains the severe budget cuts proposed by the House.

An appropriations bill approved last week slashes the toxic-cleanup program’s budget by one-third, from $1.5 billion to $1 billion. That means the EPA will have to stop work at a number of sites where costly cleanup programs are proposed but not in place, EPA officials say.

The multimillion-dollar San Fernando Valley sites are a collection of four ground-water cleanup projects--North Hollywood, Burbank and two in Glendale--all left over from airplane and automobile manufacturing in the area over the past 50 years. The EPA has found “volatile organic compounds” in the pockets of underground water, including chemicals like trichloroethylene, a suspected human carcinogen.

To remedy the situation, the agency has already begun pumping out the contaminated water, treating and blending it with treated water from the Metropolitan Water District. But that program will end should the proposed budget cuts become reality, said EPA spokeswoman Loren Michael.

In addition to the Superfund cuts, the House bill reduces the EPA’s funding to $2.3 billion for fiscal year 1996 from $4.9 billion the year before. The same bill also forbids the agency from enforcing selected regulations.

“The EPA has become an agency that issues regulations almost for the sake of issuing regulations,” said Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), who used his position as a subcommittee chairman to draft the diminished budget for the EPA.

Some questioned whether the agency released its list of threatened sites, which were scattered throughout the country, just to rile up voters enough to support the EPA’s budget battle. Lewis went so far as to suggest that a site in the city of San Bernardino was included on the EPA list just because it falls in his district.

The EPA insisted that it was not playing politics, that the list represents grim environmental realities. *

HAVE GUN, WILL RUN: Ollie M. McCaulley, an ex-Marine and former South Gate police officer who owns an accounts management firm, is no run-of-the-mill political candidate.

So you would not expect an ordinary campaign event in his run for the 39th Assembly District seat held by Richard Katz (D-Sylmar).

On Saturday and Sunday, McCaulley and his campaign will host free firearms training at the Northridge Rifle and Pistol Range. The sessions, to be held between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., include one hour of free range time with a shooting instructor and free gun rental with the purchase of 100 rounds of ammunition.

As a former police officer, McCaulley said he wants gun owners to know how to handle and fire them correctly to reduce the chances of accidental shootings. If elected, he said he would oppose new gun-control laws and continue to encourage more gun owners to receive firearms training.

“I’d like to see us try to offer it on a monthly or quarterly basis for whoever wants it,” he said.

The training classes will include shooting contests on both Saturday and Sunday and prizes will be awarded to the best shot. There will also be target competitions using .50-caliber handguns, a powerful weapon that can match the recoil of Clint Eastwood’s .44 magnum.

“It’s got a pretty good kick if you are not used to it,” McCaulley said.

Hey, if Eastwood can be elected mayor of Carmel, McCaulley may have a shot at an Assembly seat.

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BACK TO BASICS: Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, a former teacher who represents parts of the northeast San Fernando Valley, is going back to school to learn everything he can about transportation.

That is because last week he was appointed to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and to the panel overseeing operations of the Metrolink commuter trains.

Alarcon had expressed interest in being a member of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, which operates Metrolink trains, because three Metrolink stations are in his district.

But, coincidentally, Mayor Richard Riordan last week also appointed him an alternate member of the MTA, which affords him a vote on the panel when full member Carol Schatz is absent.

Alarcon was thrown into his first MTA meeting Thursday and voted to allow MTA officials to discuss the use of MTA dollars to help bail out the financially ailing county.

He said he has been following the news about the MTA’s troubles digging subway tunnels in Hollywood. And Alarcon is rushing to educate himself on other transportation issues.

“We are coming in at a very ominous time in the history of the MTA,” he said. “We do have to do some catch-up work.”

As for his goals, Alarcon said he wants to play a role in solving some of the agency’s financial problems as well as to improve bus service used by his Valley constituents.

“My agenda is to find some solutions to major problems that the MTA is facing,” he said.

Roberson of States News Service and Lacey, a Times staff writer, reported from Washington; Times staff writer Martin reported from Los Angeles.

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CASH PER CAPITA:

The 1994 congressional races were record-setting for the amount of dollars doled out by the various campaigns. In the San Fernando Valley, candidates hustled for support with mixed results. A comparison of the amount spent per vote shows that challenger Rich Sybert spent more than $18 each in his bid to unseat Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) in the 24th Congressional District. He lost. In the 29th Congressional District, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who faced little opposition, spent just $1.44 per voter, less than any other winning candidate.

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Per Name District Votes Cash Capita Anthony C. Beilenson (D) 24 95,342 $587,641 $6.16 Rich Sybert (R) 24 91,806 $1,687,166 $18.38 Buck McKeon (R) 25 110,301 $474,945 $4.31 James H. Gilmartin 25 53,445 $34,857 $.65 Howard L. Berman (D) 26 55,145 $432,535 $7.84 Gary E. Forsch (R) 26 28,423 $38,922 $1.37 Carlos J. Moorhead (R) 27 88,341 $968,212 $10.96 Doug Kahn (D) 27 70,267 $581,225 $8.27 Henry A. Waxman (D) 29 129,413 $186,127 $1.44 Paul Stepanek (R) 29 53,801 $70,777 $1.32

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Source: Almanac of American Politics 1996