Clinton Fires Up Contributors at Sherman Barbecue

Pundits everywhere are talking about “Clinton fatigue,” but for incumbent Democrats angling to fatten their wallets in anticipation of next year’s elections, the president’s presence at their fancy fund-raisers can still evoke another term.

Clinton cha-ching.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) was a beneficiary of the continuing Bill Clinton phenomenon last Sunday, when the leader of the free world stopped by Sherman’s not-so-fancy backyard barbecue fund-raiser in Beverly Hills for about an hour and a half.

Estimated total raised: $400,000.

Sherman, the only freshman Democrat elected from California when Clinton won his second term in 1996, said “there was an understanding that he would do something for me.”

It took a while, but it finally happened over the weekend, as Clinton rolled through California to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, including an appearance at a Hollywood-heavy event where he ham-handedly traded jokes with Mel Brooks and Rob Reiner.

Sherman said he could not be more pleased with Clinton’s visit to his lunchtime event, even if it raised only two-thirds as much as a similar Clinton stop earlier this year for Sherman’s friend and fellow Democrat, Rep. Max Sandlin of Texas, who also first got elected to Congress in 1996.

“The president had publicly announced six events this weekend, and mine was generally considered the worst time slot, which is probably justified, because the others were for DCCC,” Sherman said. “So we did quite well considering the circumstances. Max was not competing with Rob Reiner.”

Despite Monica Lewinsky and the numerous sensational allegations that have swirled around Clinton since he stepped into the White House, Sherman said the president still commands respect from Los Angeles’ moneyed crowd.

“He is respected for what he’s done and appreciated for what he does,” Sherman said. “People are aware of the problems. It’s not like the way people reacted to Kennedy. They know the man is not perfect. But there is a general sense that this is someone they want to show support to.”

Sherman may need every dollar, too. Republicans continue to consider his 24th District seat, which stretches from Malibu and Thousand Oaks to Encino and Sherman Oaks, turf they should own, even though it has been represented by Democrats now for decades.

The latest GOP hope may be Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, a former Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers guitarist who is talking about Takin’ It to the Streets against Sherman with help from his ‘70s rock star friends.

But Democrats do not sound too concerned. There wasn’t even a mention of Baxter’s name on Sunday, Sherman said.

“It was a Doobie-free zone,” Sherman said. “It doesn’t matter who I’m running against. What matters is what I have done, and that I have enough resources to communicate what I have done to those who do not pay attention.”

Thanks in part to Clinton, it looks like he will.

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LEGISLATORS EMERITUS: For years, Marvin Braude represented parts of Van Nuys, Encino and West Los Angeles on the City Council, where he became known for his hard-line and sometimes controversial stand on issues from smoking to the environment.

Even though he left the council two years ago, Braude is still having an impact at City Hall and still generating controversy.

Witness the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, which today will take up a proposal by Braude to double from $1 to $2 the matching taxpayer-generated money provided for each dollar raised privately by candidates in city elections.

Braude and some members of the ethics staff believe increasing the matching funds may help challengers be more competitive and reduce the reliance of candidates on special interests.

“The more it levels the playing field and allows everyone to run, it’s a very good thing,” Braude said Wednesday. “This will reduce the role of money in the campaigns.”

But another former City Council member, Ernani Bernardi of Van Nuys, says it’s a terrible idea because it rewards incumbents who can still raise more money than challengers.

“It’s wrong,” Bernardi said. “Doubling it just exaggerates the benefit the incumbent is going to have.”

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. also opposes the Braude proposal, says Jon Coupal, president of the group.

“It’s a misuse of taxpayer funds,” Coupal said. “People ought to rely on some other source than the public treasury to advance their political careers.”

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PEOPLE’S BUDGET: City Councilman Mike Feuer has come up with a new idea for next year’s budget.

Feuer, who recently took over as chairman of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee, is circulating a survey asking how residents would spend $1 million. To help, respondents are given a dozen items to chose from.

One paramedic ambulance operating 24 hours a day for a year costs $600,000. A sidewalk repair crew fixing seven miles of pavement annually costs $560,000. An additional tree-trimming crew able to trim 9,000 trees in a year costs $500,000.

“We’ll be able to get a sense of how different neighborhoods across the city want their tax dollars spent,” Feuer said.

Missing choices include:

--Nine of the 15 City Council members paid at their current salary of $113,000.

--Junkets for all 15 council members to Europe, Asia and South America.

--One year’s worth of penalties charged to the city by the phone company for failing to pay bills on time.

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PARKING PRIVILEGES: The latest rift between the Valley and the rest of Los Angeles? Forget police response time and water rights. Think preferential parking districts.

Two motions to establish new Valley districts, congested areas where parking for nonresidents is restricted, hit the City Council on Wednesday. Both were handily approved--but not without some impassioned commentary from Councilman Mike Hernandez.

“In the more affluent areas of the city, with respect to preferential parking, their streets are more private than the poorer areas of the city,” Hernandez declared, citing a parking district he had sought, but was denied, near Chinatown. He asked the city’s Department of Transportation to prepare a map showing parking districts citywide.

DOT staff told Hernandez that one of the districts being pursued, an 18-block area south of Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, had been through all the bureaucratic hoops required to set up preferential parking. The other district, however, aimed for a Chatsworth neighborhood north of the planned new county courthouse at Winnetka Avenue and Plummer Street, had not.

“You’re asking us to support this, even though it’s outside policy,” Hernandez told Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents Chatsworth.

Hernandez angled for a compromise, suggesting using an emergency ordinance, letting the courthouse have its preferential parking on a temporary basis. Bernson agreed, and the council moved to vote.

But wait. Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg wasn’t through. Why not allow a two-hour exception to parking rules for people using the courthouse? That would inconvenience the residents, Bernson replied.

“I can’t support this,” Goldberg decided. “I think what we’re doing is privatizing public streets.”

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Bustillo and McGreevy are Times staff writers. Fox is a Times Community News correspondent.