Avalanche of Cash Flows Into Coffers

Eight years ago, a handful of well-known Democrats spent an unthinkable $2 million in a bruising fight for the state’s 23rd state Senate District seat. It was a record-breaking sum to spend on a California legislative primary race, narrowly won that year by then-Assemblyman Tom Hayden.

Today, campaign spending for the same seat has climbed even higher. This time around, another pair of popular Democrats--Sheila Kuehl and Wally Knox--fought it out in the primary for the same prime piece of liberal turf, a wealthy district stretching from Santa Monica to the San Fernando Valley.

They raked in more than $2.5 million altogether, with Kuehl pulling in hundreds of thousands even after she won the primary, according to state campaign finance records.

In another corner of the Valley, Rep. James Rogan (R-Glendale) and his Democratic challenger, state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), are expected to pour $10.5 million into their tight race for the 27th Congressional District, among the most expensive House races in history. That’s more than all the candidates who ran for the seat in the last 10 years spent combined.

A Times review of contributions flooding into Valley races over the last decade confirms what anyone whose mailbox has been bombarded with campaign ads already knows: More money is being raised and spent than ever to win votes.

“There’s never been as much money wasted on politics as there has been this year,” said Larry Makinson, director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. “Is this any kind of example of fiscal responsibility to set, when you’re spending $1 million to run for a state Assembly seat?”

In fact, in some Assembly races in the Valley, contenders have raised well over $2 million this election cycle.

The Money Is ‘Overwhelming’

Take the 44th Assembly District, a suburban area that includes Pasadena, La Canada Flintridge, Sunland-Tujunga and parts of Glendale. For most of the 1990s, candidates routinely spent about $1.25 million on this race, according to state records. The main exception was in 1996, when former Pasadena City College President Jack Scott upset incumbent Republican Bill Hoge, a contest that cost about $1.6 million.

This year, a raft of well-funded candidates--including one who lent her campaign almost $700,000--has pulled in more than $2.5 million. Much of the money was spent on the Democratic primary, which Carol Liu won. She’s the one who lent herself hundreds of thousands of dollars, pushing her fund-raising total to nearly $1.7 million--more than the total price tag for this seat in previous election years.

An avalanche of cash has also tumbled into the 41st Assembly District race. The last time this seat was open, in 1994, six Democrats and two Republicans slugged it out, with the Democrats spending just over $1 million in the primary. The winner was Kuehl, who went on to claim the seat, representing Santa Monica, Malibu and parts of the West Valley. All told, that race cost more than $1.3 million.

This year, five Democrats and two Republicans reeled in more than $2.1 million, and the money is still streaming in. Though the Democratic primary in this liberal district actually cost less than it did six years ago, the overall spending was driven up by a strong (and well-heeled) Republican candidate, Jayne Murphy Shapiro, who has raised more than $865,000, including about $275,000 that she lent her campaign.

“It’s absolutely overwhelming,” said Fran Pavley, a teacher and former Agoura Hills councilwoman, who won the Democratic primary in that race. “As a council member, I never had to raise more than $4,000 because you can literally walk to every house and meet every voter.”

Pavley’s tally so far for the Assembly seat: $643,000 and counting.

There is no shortage of theories to explain the campaign cash crush: a flush economy, armies of political consultants urging more spending, limited media coverage that prevents little-known candidates from getting their message out and the lack of campaign finance reform.

“People with huge amounts of money drown out the voices of people with less money,” said Hayden, who is leaving the state Senate because of term limits. “I think we’re in a crisis that is the biggest since segregation . . . There is a class of people who is being disenfranchised, based not on race but on money.”

On the ballot this year, Proposition 34 would limit political contributions and require more frequent disclosure of campaign funding. But the measure is opposed by a coalition of public interest groups such as Common Cause and by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who say the initiative would supersede a much stricter reform measure approved by voters in 1996.

Average Spending Was $1 Million Per Seat in ’96

Meanwhile, in legislative races, spending has steadily climbed over the last two decades.

In 1976, total campaign costs for all candidates for the state Legislature amounted to less than $15 million, according to data compiled by the Secretary of State. In the 1996 cycle, the priciest yet, the same costs topped $100 million. That means the average amount spent on each seat that year was $1 million.

Along with fueling the perennial cries for campaign finance reform, the heavy spending is raising a more fundamental question: Does it work?

“I think people are spending more money than they need to in some races to get their message out,” said Karen Getman, chairwoman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state board that oversees campaign financing. “Is it really costing that much more to run, or are people just throwing money at these races?”

Getman cited a hot state Senate race in her own neighborhood in Contra Costa County. Every day, she said, she finds another campaign mailer from the same candidate in her mailbox.

“Does the ninth or 10th piece of mail change my mind when the first eight didn’t?” she asks. “I don’t think so . . . At some point, it starts to feel excessive.”

Some candidates agree but said there is no incentive to stop digging for dollars. Take Hayden, liberal icon of the ‘60s, who recently retired from politics only to jump back into the ring to run for a Los Angeles City Council seat--and to hunt for money again.

“It’s a matter of having to do something I deeply oppose,” he said. “Like right now, I’m on the phone raising money for the City Council [race]. It’s hard to be motivated when you don’t believe you have any basis for doing it, except survival.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Money Madness

Contributions have soared to record levels in several San Fernando Valley races.