Local Firms Spent Heavily on Campaign Contributions : Politics: Valley interests seeking access to lawmakers used a legal loophole to give more than $1 million in ‘soft money’ to both major parties the past two years.

WASHINGTON —  Sunkist Growers Inc., headquartered in Sherman Oaks, has heavy stakes in federal government actions. Last year, the firm was engaged in a protracted battle over marketing orders, the citrus quotas set weekly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for all orange and lemon growers in California and Arizona.

Sunkist contributed $116,400 to the Republican National Committee and another $5,400 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 1992 election year. As a member of the GOP’s elite “Team 100,” Sunkist President Russell Hanlin joined scores of other big givers in Vice President Dan Quayle’s box at the Republican National Convention in Houston.

Hanlin makes no bones about the intent of the contributions: to gain access to governmental decision makers, whether in a bid to preserve the marketing orders, open foreign export markets or obtain disaster relief for freeze-stricken farmers. He said that the increasingly centralized ownership of farms necessitates political action, even if for purely defensive reasons.

“We’ve worked hard to have access and to tell agriculture’s story,” Hanlin said. “All of agriculture today is politically sensitized because they realize they are disadvantaged because so few people can grow all of the food for America. If you’re not politically active, you find yourself on the receiving end of some very funny things.”

Indeed, Sunkist ranks at the top of the list of corporate “soft money” contributors from the San Fernando Valley area who gave large sums to the Republican and Democratic national committees and related party coffers--gifts that are exempt from the tight restrictions imposed on other types of campaign contributions.

The contributions are called “soft money” because few hard-and-fast rules govern them and they do not go directly to individual political candidates. The funds--which, unlike other contributions, can be given without any limits and can be donated by corporations and labor unions--are used to register voters and for other party building activities.

Critics of the practice call it an egregious loophole in post-Watergate laws through which donors gain special clout with those in power.

“Soft money has become a way to launder huge contributions through the back door when they are prohibited from coming in the front door,” said Common Cause President Fred Wertheimer, whose organization went to court to force public disclosure of soft money donations. “And so you wind up with those people and those interests who are able to give $100,000 and more getting special access, special influence and favorable treatment from the government.”

Overall, Valley firms donated more than $1.2 million to the various party committees in the recent election cycle, a computer-assisted Times study shows. Valley firms and individuals affiliated with them gave a total of $716,790 to the Democrats and $488,726 to the Republicans in soft money in the past two years.

Prominent among the givers were entertainment giants Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Walt Disney Co. and MCA Inc. The firms’ executives, led by MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman, Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg and Sony Pictures Chairman Peter Guber, gave additional sums.

Entertainment companies have interests in a variety of governmental actions, including tax, communication, syndication, intellectual property, export and merchandising issues. Some of these executives are also politically active in their own right, mostly as Democratic donors.

Other big Valley-area givers included Galpin Ford, whose owner H. F. (Bert) Boeckmann has been a hefty GOP fund-raiser for years, and TVF Ventures Inc., a Valencia investment firm.

Rounding out the top donors was Mozark Productions of Studio City, the television company headed by producers Harry and Linda Bloodworth Thomason. The Thomasons, producers of “Designing Women,” are close to Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton. They produced the high-profile video at the Democratic National Convention for their fellow Arkansans and bought a home south of Santa Barbara for the Clintons to use as a retreat.

Many of the top Valley-area givers, including Wasserman, Katzenberg, Guber and Boeckmann, declined to discuss their contributions. Another Valley executive offered an explanation on the condition that neither he nor his firm be identified.

“A whole lot of people go around talking about the fact that contributions don’t buy influence, they buy access,” the executive said. “There are a lot of people who believe the theory strongly enough that they don’t want to test it and find out the hard way when they can’t get a meeting after not giving.”

Sunkist, which had revenues of more than $1 billion last year, grows about 60% of the nation’s oranges. It has major interests in a range of government policies.

The firm exports 40% of what it grows--giving it a stake in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement. It has also sought to knock down import barriers in such countries as Japan, China and Thailand.

The company has fought long and hard to maintain an old and controversial quota system that was set up in the Depression era to prevent fruit gluts that could lead to price wars and harm farmers. Under the system, the Agriculture secretary determined how many naval oranges and lemons from California and Arizona can be sold.

Critics, including some independent growers and fruit handlers, contended that this was an anachronism that kept quantities artificially low and prices artificially high. They said that the marketing orders were unfair to smaller growers and handlers--forcing them to allow excess fruit to rot or to be sold in less-lucrative juice or overseas markets.

The high-stakes regulatory battle was played out in the Agriculture Department, before Quayle’s Council on Competitiveness and in federal court last year.

In December, outgoing Agriculture Secretary Edward R. Madigan rescinded the orders, saying that this would lead to lower prices for consumers. Sunkist and eight other growers subsequently got a federal judge to issue a restraining order blocking Madigan’s decision. Then, on Dec. 29, the court refused to make the restraining order permanent.

Hanlin said the company will “sample the opinion of the incoming Administration” before it decides whether to pursue further legal action.

James A. Moody, an attorney for growers who challenged the marketing orders, said that the Sunkist campaign contributions were an effort to dissuade Quayle--who was seeking to eliminate federal regulations--from opposing the Sunkist-backed quotas.

Moody called the quotas “contrary to every principle of free trade, reduced government regulation and reliance on private entrepreneurship the Administration and Secretary Madigan say they stand for.”

Hanlin, who maintains that the quotas assure “a steady flow of a fresh product,” said that Moody’s assertion about the contributions was “largely untrue. As with most things, there may be a grain of truth in there. Marketing orders are one of the things we’re interested in protecting for our growers,” but there are many other issues that concern the company as well.

He said he did not discuss the marketing orders with Quayle at the Republican Convention but did so on other occasions. He said he also met with Madigan and other top Administration officials at various times to discuss a range of issues.

Did the contributions open these doors? “It’s very difficult to say,” Hanlin said. “We’ve always had access one way or another, but we’ve always been politically active.”

Among the pillars of political giving in the Hollywood community is MCA chairman Wasserman, who raised more than $1 million for the Democratic National Committee at an event at his Beverly Hills home that Clinton attended last August. Wasserman contributed the cost of the event, $82,969 as well as another $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee that week.

In addition, Wasserman made contributions totaling $77,730 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. MCA bought $20,000 worth of tickets to a Republican dinner in June, 1991, gave $10,000 to the DCCC and $20,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

The Valley’s other entertainment giant, Disney, made two contributions totaling $50,000 to the DNC in 1992. In addition, Katzenberg, who is chairman of Walt Disney Studios, gave $70,000 to the DNC and $10,000 to the DCCC. John F. Cook, president of the Disney Channel, contributed $36,208 to the DNC and Disney President Frank G. Wells gave $25,000 to the DNC.

Disney Executive Vice President Joe Shapiro said that the company also made a $50,000 contribution to the Republican Party in Florida. He said that Disney is active in the political process even though far too much money is raised and spent on campaigns.

“The company believes that whether the system is perfect or imperfect, the process of electing officials has to be supported,” Shapiro said. “However, the corporation, out of respect for the disparate political views of the employees and shareholders, doesn’t want to be partisan. So, when a decision is made to participate, it participates equally.”

He said that “any individual contribution was just that”--not linked to the company.

Sony Pictures Entertainment, which has offices in Burbank, gave $50,000 each to the DNC and RNC and another $20,000 to the DCCC. In addition, Guber gave $55,000 to the DNC.

Ellen Miller, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said that the distinction between individual and corporate giving is blurred when it comes to such prominent donors as Wasserman or senior Disney executives.

“There’s no way to pin it down either way,” she said. “It is fair to say this is corporate clout. Most of this money is seen as an investment and, in most cases, it is a very small investment given the size of the return that can be expected.”

The MCA and Sony Pictures contributions also raise the issue of the participation of foreign-owned firms in the American political process. MCA is owned by Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co. and Sony Pictures by Sony Corp, both of which are Japanese firms.

Foreign firms are prohibited from contributing to campaigns in this country; the law is less restrictive in reference to American-owned subsidiaries of foreign firms, which applies to both MCA and Sony.

A spokesman for Sony said, “Anything that we have given strictly comports with all applicable federal, state and local election laws.”

Galpin Ford’s Boeckmann has long been among the most active of Republicans in the Valley. The wealthy car dealer and philanthropist, a conservative, is among the Valley’s largest contributors to political campaigns. He also served as a Los Angeles police commissioner.

Galpin and Boeckmann made contributions to the Republican National Committee in 1992 totaling $84,400.

TVF Ventures Inc. in Valencia is a private investment firm. The company, which was started seven years ago, made four donations totaling $69,400 to the RNC last year.

“We’ve been a believer in the business philosophy of the Republican Party and we’ve been very concerned that the Democrats have been geared up to change that philosophy, which leads to more government spending and more deficit spending,” said a TVF executive who asked not to be named. He said the “business does not involve any government contracts or regulation.”

Hydro-Mill Co., a Chatsworth aerospace firm that builds airplane frames, landing gear and other components for commercial and military clients, gave three contributions totaling $16,408 to the RNC in the past two years.

The company, which employs 260, does 60% of its work commercially, mostly for the Boeing Co., 35% as a military subcontractor and 5% in defense contracts, said President Tony Baird.

Since 1988, Hydro-Mill has received at least $4.6 million in Air Force contracts, including $2.2 million to supply 207 frames in 1990, according to published reports.

But owner Gloria Coppin said the donations have “nothing to do with our contracts.”

Coppin, whose father founded the firm in 1938, said: “It’s definitely an ideological thing. I had been a member of the Republican Party ever since I was old enough to vote and my parents before me. And I have strong feelings that in my lifetime the Republican Party has been more business-oriented.”

Staff researcher Murielle Gamache and librarian Pat Welch contributed to this story.

The Biggest Spenders

Among contributors based in the San Fernando Valley area, here are the leading corporate sources of “soft money,” contributions to Republican and Democratic national committees and related party coffers. Soft money gifts are exempt from the limits imposed on other federal campaign contributions.

AMOUNT DONATED TO COMPANY REPUBLICANS DEMOCRATS TOTAL Sunkist Growers Inc., Sherman Oaks $116,400 $5,400 $121,800 Sony Pictures Entertainment, Burbank $50,000 $70,000 $120,000 Galpin Ford, North Hills $84,400 $84,400 TVF Ventures Inc., Valencia $69,400 $69,400 Mozark Productions, Studio City $60,000 $60,000 MCA Inc., Universal City $20,000 $30,000 $50,000 Walt Disney Co., Burbank $50,000 $50,000

Individual executives with Valley-based corporations also made substantial soft money contributions to the Democratic Party in the past two years. Among them were:

NAME COMPANY AMOUNT Lew Wasserman MCA Inc., Universal City $260,699 Jeffrey Katzenberg Walt Disney Co., Burbank $80,000 Peter Guber Sony Pictures Entertainment, Burbank $55,000 John F. Cook Walt Disney Co., Burbank $36,208 Frank G. Wells Walt Disney Co., Burbank $25,000

Sources: Reports filed by the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee for contributions made through Oct. 15 and interviews.