Gov. Plans Massive Fund Drive

Trailing in the polls and facing friction inside his own Republican Party, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set a fundraising goal of more than $120 million for the November election. The sum rivals the amount raised and spent by the entire field of candidates in the 2002 governor’s race.

If Schwarzenegger succeeds, the money raised -- along with tens of millions of dollars that Democrats are likely to spend -- would shatter state and national campaign finance records.

“We think it’s doable and necessary,” said Rob Stutzman, a strategist for the state Republican Party. He cited the battering the governor took in last year’s special election, when opponents spent more than $100 million to defeat four Schwarzenegger-backed ballot initiatives. “There’s no reason to think that much can’t be spent again, if not more, to try to beat the governor.”

Much of that opposition money was used in advertising that assailed Schwarzenegger for the aggressive fundraising he has undertaken since winning office in the 2003 recall. Schwarzenegger ran as a reformer in that race, vowing to break the sway of money in Sacramento.

Asked if the governor’s ambitious fundraising goal this year might not fuel further attacks, Stutzman replied: “Whether you like it or not, you have to raise the money to buy the TV ads that win elections.... And the greater danger is what you actually saw last year, which is when you’re dramatically outspent and your opponents can define you in inaccurate ways.”

In seeking to reach his goal, Schwarzenegger is offering large donors personal access. Invitations to a March 20 dinner in Beverly Hills offer “head table seating with the governor” for two and six photos of couples with the governor for those who contribute at least $100,000 to his reelection campaign and the state GOP. The dinner’s star speaker is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a champion of campaign finance reform.

The governor’s fundraising goal was discussed last week in Newport Beach at a closed-door meeting of the California Business Roundtable, which consists of the leaders of the state’s biggest corporations.

Stutzman delivered a campaign briefing there for roughly three dozen business executives and on Wednesday confirmed the accounts provided by others who attended.

The governor hopes to raise $60 million to $65 million for his reelection campaign and, with the help of party leaders, a similar amount for the California Republican Party to benefit the entire statewide GOP ticket.

The state parties will play an important new role in campaign finance under rules that take effect this election season. Those rules limit the size of individual donations, which political analysts said would inevitably lead candidates to encourage donors to forward excess cash to the parties.

But with donors limited in their generosity, the new rules also mean that Schwarzenegger will have to work harder to raise the ambitious sum that he hopes to collect -- and quickly.

When Gov. Gray Davis collected roughly $78 million for his successful 2002 reelection campaign -- a California record -- he did so over the course of four years. In that same cycle, a senior aide said, he raised less than $2 million for the state party.

Schwarzenegger started the year with his reelection campaign $410,000 in debt after spending more than $55 million in last year’s special election.

The governor’s union opponents and his leading Democratic rivals -- state Treasurer Phil Angelides and state Controller Steve Westly -- had more than $50 million in the bank at the same time.

Criticism of his fundraising tactics have followed Schwarzenegger from last year’s special election debacle into the reelection year. He hired Democrat and former Davis staffer Susan Kennedy as his chief of staff -- enraging Republicans -- and is using her to court donors at private events.

Under the unusual arrangement -- which government watchdogs said gave donors inappropriate access to a key aide -- Kennedy is due to receive $7,500 per month from the campaign in addition to her $131,000 annual state salary.

The 2006 race for governor will be California’s first under the campaign donation limits set by voters in Proposition 34, a ballot measure passed by voters in 2000. Donations to candidates for governor are generally capped at $44,600 for the primary and general election combined.

In 1998, when donations were not limited, candidates for California governor spent $118 million. In 2002, Davis and his Republican challengers spent $130 million.

The costliest governor’s race in U.S. history was the 1998 contest in New York, in which candidates spent more than $140 million, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The state parties spent even more in addition to that sum.

An aide to McCain, meanwhile, denied that the Arizona senator’s plan to appear at a Schwarzenegger fundraiser was awkward. McCain, who is weighing another presidential bid in 2008, has been collecting political chits around the country by helping candidates raise money under state rules that are far more lax than the restrictions on federal campaigns.

“The important thing is that all the rules within the state are followed, and the senator himself is not soliciting large donations,” said John Weaver, a McCain strategist.