Fund-Raising Sheds Light on Speaker’s Allies

When Assembly Democrats selected Cruz Bustamante as speaker last week, they chose a politician skilled at carrying out one of the most important jobs of a legislative leader--raising money.

As he methodically worked to become leader of the lower house, Bustamante’s money-raising and his lawmaking sometimes appeared intertwined, with donors’ checks arriving as measures they backed cleared various legislative hurdles.

Bustamante’s fund-raising does not match that of former Speakers Curt Pringle, a Republican, or Democrat Willie Brown. But a Times review of Bustamante’s campaign finance reports shows that California’s newest speaker has pulled in $1.2 million since his first campaign in 1993.

“There is obviously a need to raise funds and, with leadership, to raise a lot of funds,” Bustamante said Friday. “It depends on how you do it, if you do it within the rules.”

Bustamante’s money comes from the traditional Democratic allies: organized labor, the public school lobby, including teachers unions, and trial lawyers. It also comes from business interests such as garbage haulers, tobacco companies and California’s huge agricultural industry.

All of them have a keen interest in legislation at the Capitol.

“There isn’t anything out of the ordinary,” Ruth Holton of California Common Cause said, reviewing Bustamante’s fund-raising. “But the ordinary isn’t necessarily good.”

The sources of Bustamante’s campaign money provide insight into his politics. While donors cannot legally link political contributions to a lawmaker’s votes, they rarely give to one who consistently votes against their interests.

Gun groups, for example, have given Bustamante no money. Bustamante supports the assault weapons ban. He also voted against a bill this year to greatly expand the number of concealed weapons permits in California. Such stands earned him an “F” rating from the National Rifle Assn.

His largest single block of money comes from organized labor, a loyal Democratic ally. Unions representing workers in private industry and government have given him $247,000, roughly 20% of the total he has raised.

By contrast, Bustamante takes money that some Democrats shun. The tobacco industry is one such source.

He has taken $30,000 from tobacco companies, with $15,000 coming from tobacco giant Philip Morris two weeks before the Nov. 5 election. Bustamante voted against California’s landmark 1994 ban on smoking in most indoor workplaces.

“I also take oil money, which some others don’t,” Bustamante said. “I can be [independent] regardless of contributions. I don’t take money for the purposes of some particular vote.”

Bustamante’s ability to raise money could be sharply limited by Proposition 208, sponsored by Common Cause and the League of Women Voters and approved by voters Nov. 5.

The measure will bar Bustamante and other lawmakers from transferring money they raise to other candidates, significantly limiting the speaker’s power, and cap the amount legislators can raise from a single donor at $500.

Bustamante said he intends to abide by the rules of Proposition 208. But he also said he will hold one or two fund-raisers this month, while the old rules allowing unlimited donations still apply.

“We’re going to continue to need resources, so we have to find how to raise those resources within those rules,” Bustamante said. “I don’t think people are ready for total public funding, but that’s the only answer in the end.”

Bustamante got to know the old system well when, in 1995, then-Speaker Brown placed him in charge of fund-raising for Assembly Democrats.

It was an important platform for someone working to become speaker. The job gave Bustamante greater access to more lobbyists and campaign donors. And, given that money cements loyalty in politics, Bustamante could raise money for incumbents and for newcomers, who could vote for him as speaker.

But in that role, Bustamante sometimes gave the impression that his work as a fund-raiser and legislator were intertwined.

Although Bustamante has carried relatively few bills, he did author a measure this year backed by some cities and counties, as well as garbage haulers led by Browning Ferris Industries, the country’s second-largest garbage firm.

The bill, which now is law, permits garbage dump operators to use waste such as garden clippings to cover other garbage, and count the so-called green waste toward state requirements that they increase recycling.

Browning Ferris took up the issue after a judge in January ruled in a lawsuit brought by environmentalists that state law did not permit local governments to use the clippings to meet recycling goals.

It was in April, after receiving $2,000 from Browning Ferris, that Bustamante changed a bill, adding language that Browning Ferris helped craft.

Campaign finance reports show that eight days after he amended the measure, Bustamante received $1,000 more from the firm. On the day the measure cleared the Senate, Browning Ferris gave him another $1,000.

Three weeks before the election, after Gov. Pete Wilson had signed the measure into law, Browning Ferris gave Bustamante another $10,000, and a final $5,000 the day before the November election.

Marc Aprea, lobbyist for Browning Ferris, said the firm donated to Bustamante because he is “an outstanding leader,” not because he carried the bill.

Bustamante said he attracts such donations because he is “a business-oriented Democrat.”

In Sacramento, the timing of Browning Ferris’ contributions scarcely raised an eyebrow. Such juxtaposition is not unusual. There is no violation of any law, so long as lawmakers and donors don’t link donations and votes.

What’s more, Browning Ferris is a major donor. The firm gave then-Speaker Pringle at least $29,500 this year, and $10,000 to former Assembly Democratic Leader Richard Katz. Altogether, the firm has given more than $460,000 to state candidates since 1995.

“Sadly, it’s par for the course,” said Mark Murray, director of Californians Against Waste, which opposed the garbage bill. He viewed the donations as a mere coincidence. “In another year, they would have contributed an equal amount to someone who potentially might be speaker.”

The $1.2 million Bustamante has raised may seem like a lot. But Bustamante has not raised money on as grand a scale as Pringle (R-Garden Grove) or Brown, who is now mayor of San Francisco. At the height of his power, Brown, who was renowned for his lavish fund-raisers, would take in $600,000 at a single event.

Although he doesn’t have Brown’s fund-raising prowess, Bustamante strives to take “a page of Brown’s book” at his events, a lobbyist said.

Because he is viewed as a moderate and was in the running to become Assembly leader, Bustamante received money from groups more aligned with Republicans, such as the oil and insurance industries.

Unlike most Democrats, Bustamante, who hails from Fresno, the nation’s richest farming county, also draws large sums from farming interests.

“When I look at our clients and look at Cruz, I can’t help but be pleased,” said George Soares, one of Sacramento’s leading farming lobbyists.

Farmers, companies that make and apply pesticides, and others involved in California’s $20-billion agricultural industry have given Bustamante at least $86,000, more than 7% of the total he has raised since 1993.

He has broken from the majority of the Assembly Democrats and cast votes in accord with the farming lobby’s wishes. One example came earlier this year, when he tried to line up votes for a Republican bill backed by agricultural chemical manufacturers and some farming groups to limit the authority of state pesticide regulators.

Bustamante offered two amendments in an attempt to mollify Democrats. One of the amendments was approved and one died. Still, Bustamante voted for the bill in the Assembly, one of only two Democrats to do so, sending the measure to the Democratic-controlled state Senate, where it died. The bill likely will be revived in 1997.

“I have a district with a lot of farmers and I have to represent them the best way I can,” the new speaker said. “But I also have a district with a lot of farm workers and so I walk this tightrope all the time.”

The Assn. of California Insurance Companies and many insurance companies generally give more money to Republicans than Democrats. But Barry Carmody of the association said Bustamante has shown himself to be a moderate, and thus worthy of the insurance industry’s political money.

This year, Bustamante helped gather Assembly votes for one of the insurance industry’s biggest bills of the decade--one to create a state program for earthquake insurance and relieve insurance companies of some exposure.

Carmody’s group has given Bustamante $32,250 since he arrived in the Assembly, including $30,000 this year. Insurance companies involved in the earthquake insurance fight gave Bustamante $29,000 this year.