Convention’s Race for Funding Nears Finish Line

The financial fortunes of this summer’s Democratic National Convention, which just a week ago were in doubt, have suddenly reversed, thanks to an aggressive scramble for public and private money capped Saturday by a fund-raiser featuring President Clinton at Mayor Richard Riordan’s home in Brentwood.

That event netted about $1 million, and it came on the heels of the City Council approving a $4-million public subsidy, a vote conditioned on Riordan chipping in $1 million of his own cash. Developer Ed Roski was forced to do the same. Both men had pledged to give the money if the convention came up short, but the council voted not to release any public money until they contributed theirs.

All told, that means the convention raised $7 million in 24 hours.

As a result, according to convention officials and others, virtually all of the money for the Los Angeles event, which just a week ago was in peril, now is either in the bank or on the way. The convention is budgeted at $35.3 million and planners expect to spend $2 million more on community events and other related activities.

“We’re very, very close,” host committee President Noelia Rodriguez said Saturday after the event with Clinton. “We’re within reach of the finish line.”

Much of the credit for that effort, convention officials and others say, goes to Terry McAuliffe, the newly appointed chairman of the Democratic National Convention Committee and a close friend of the president. McAuliffe helped lobby wavering Los Angeles City Council members to approve the public subsidy--a difficult vote for many, since convention planners had promised they would not need taxpayers’ money, only to request it in desperation at the eleventh hour. He also has been reaching out to other donors.

As often is the case when McAuliffe is involved, the results have been dramatic. According to convention officials, McAuliffe, who recently pulled off the largest fund-raiser in American political history, personally has solicited millions of dollars in a little over two weeks.

The same sources said McAuliffe has worked closely with Ron Burkle, one of Los Angeles’ richest men and one of the convention’s co-hosts, to rake in that cash.

“We feel like it’s just about done,” one person close to the convention said.

Riordan is the event’s other signature fund-raiser. In addition to his own $1-million gift, he reportedly has raised more than $5 million in recent months; many of those contributions have been in amounts of $100,000 or so, forcing Riordan to spend two to three days a week working the telephones. At Riordan’s home Saturday morning, contributors paid $25,000 per couple for the chance to meet Clinton.

The event Saturday turned out some of Los Angeles’ wealthiest and most politically connected insiders, all of whom gathered at Riordan’s spacious Brentwood home for brunch. Large white umbrellas shaded more than a dozen tables on Riordan’s lawn--site of some of the city’s most important political events in recent years.

Although they come from different parties--Riordan is a Republican, Clinton a Democrat--the two leaders traded effusive compliments.

“No words can describe the help you’ve given Los Angeles over the last seven years,” Riordan said of the president, whose administration helped pay for the buildup of the Los Angeles Police Department, the city’s earthquake recovery and many other local initiatives.

Riordan also hailed a litany of Clinton administration accomplishments, including its emphasis on education reform, peace initiatives in the Middle East and the Balkans; open-trade policies and welfare reform.

Riordan, dressed in a blue blazer and open-neck shirt, concluded his introductory remarks by calling Clinton “the greatest leader in the free world.”

The president, who lauded Riordan as well, gave what amounted to a civics pep talk, telling the movers and shakers that they can design a convention that will help the entire electorate “focus on the choices voters face in November.”

His remarks were a sharp contrast to the partisan tone of nearly a dozen other speeches he gave in the past two days at Democratic fund-raising events--including two Saturday afternoon in Beverly Hills for Sen. Dianne Feinstein--in California and Arizona.

“You’ve got all the challenges and all the opportunities of the future within 20 minutes of where we’re having breakfast today. And that’s why I want you to help us show America,” the president said. “I want Americans to see the future, the diversity and the youth, the vibrancy, the technology, the creativity--the whole nine yards.”

The audience included some of Clinton’s most loyal Southern California supporters--as well as some of Riordan’s. Among them: Eli Broad, the billionaire businessman said to be Los Angeles’ richest man; lawyer Bill Wardlaw, a powerful political figure; and U.S. 9th Circuit Judge Kim Wardlaw.

Roski, whose $1-million pledge was called in as a result of Friday’s council action, also was on hand, as well as leading lawyer and lobbyist Lisa Specht, who helped win passage of that measure.

Most interestingly, the crowd included a number of City Council members who voted both for and against that $4-million donation to the convention and activities surrounding it.

Hosts of the event were not surprised to see Councilman Nate Holden, who championed the public subsidy, nor Councilman Alex Padilla, who seconded the motion on Friday that cleared the way for it.

They were more taken aback to find that council members Cindy Miscikowski and Mike Feuer, who voted against that motion, showed up at the mayor’s house for Saturday’s event.

All told, eight members of the council, a bare majority, voted for the subsidy. They were Holden, Padilla, Jackie Goldberg, Mike Hernandez, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Ruth Galanter, Hal Bernson and Nick Pacheco. Voting against the measure were Feuer, Miscikowski, Laura Chick, Rudy Svorinich Jr. and Joel Wachs.

Council President John Ferraro and Councilwoman Rita Walters were absent.

Feuer’s presence at Saturday’s event seemed to particularly irritate its hosts. Some convention backers had hoped Feuer would provide them with a key vote in favor of the public subsidy. When he did not, they were forced to turn to Goldberg, who gave them their victory but who attached a variety of conditions to her vote, infuriating some aides to Riordan and others. One of her conditions was that Pershing Square, in the heart of downtown, be reserved as a gathering place for protesters; that plan is opposed by the LAPD and downtown business owners, who see it as an invitation to trouble during the convention.

Goldberg was not at the event Saturday. Another council member who skipped the fund-raiser was Wachs, the leading opponent of the public subsidy.

“Are you kidding?” Wachs said Friday when asked whether he planned to attend. “My mother always told me not to go places where I’m not wanted. I’m going to the Van Nuys air show.”