Cardenas’ Funds Wane, Rivals’ Wax

Democratic Assembly candidate Tony Cardenas’ war chest has shrunk to the smallest among the major candidates in the hotly contested 39th District race, plunging his campaign to become the San Fernando Valley’s first Latino state legislator into financial trouble only a week before elections. And Cardenas is not alone in his potential financial difficulties as races across the Valley draw to a close. Records filed last week show that congressional candidate Barry Gordon and 43rd Assembly District candidate Sheldon Baker, both considered strong contenders in their fields, have also struggled to keep pace with rivals whose personal fortunes have boosted their campaigns.

In the hotly contested 39th District Democratic primary in the northeast Valley, Cardenas’ cash contributions have kept pace with opponent Valerie Salkin’s, but cannot compete with the $80,000 Salkin has lent her campaign from her own bank account--$20,000 of it just last week--or the sizable donations racked up from labor and special-interest groups by rival Jim Dantona.

Records show that Cardenas has only $11,350 left in cash, an amount dwarfed by the $70,000-plus waiting to be spent by Salkin and Dantona in the crucial last week of the election.

“I feel very comfortable with that,” said Cardenas. “We knew that this would be a grass-roots campaign, and grass-roots campaigns don’t cost a lot of money.”

Last Wednesday, his staff reported a $10,000 in-kind donation from the California Latino Political Action Committee to help pay for campaign literature, an important expense this close to voting day.

Among Dantona’s numerous contributions during the past month were $5,000 from waste hauler Browning-Ferris Industries and $20,000 from a dentists’ political action committee. Large sums have also come from labor unions, law-enforcement groups and Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles).

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Dantona dismissed any possible negative repercussions from the support of Browning-Ferris, whose status as the owner of the Sunshine Canyon landfill just outside the district could turn off voters in an area where hostility toward the city-run Lopez Canyon dump runs deep.

“You’ll see that BFI has been a major contributor, but you’ll also see that I was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters,” Dantona said. “And let me be perfectly clear here: BFI has nothing to do with Lopez Canyon. . . . They’re a responsible company that has interests up and down the state.”

As for Salkin, her campaign manager, Vincent Maffei, defended the $80,000 she has tapped from her personal funds, saying that she would be beholden to no one if elected. Maffei acknowledged that the lion’s share of Salkin’s large donors do not live within the 39th District, but noted the raft of small contributions from local residents.

Maffei contended that Salkin’s personal affluence presented no hindrance to understanding the needs of the district’s voters.

“She can relate extremely well to them because she’s been out here talking to them,” he said.

The two remaining Democratic candidates, Michael del Rio and Jose Galvan, had $50 or less on hand.

In the 27th Congressional District, Gordon has raised $51,000 since the first of the year and ended with a balance of $8,122 before infusing the account with an $18,000 personal loan last Friday. That gives the attorney and former Screen Actors Guild president roughly $26,000 to work with in the next week.

But his challenger, Doug Kahn, an heir to the Annenberg fortune, has $315,460 in the bank, despite raising just $17,769 from donors since Jan. 1--less than one-third of Gordon’s take from the public.

Gordon’s consultant, Parke Skelton, said, however, that a bank balance is only one indicator of a winning campaign. He noted that Gordon, who has the endorsement of the state Democratic Party, the Verdugo Hills and other local Democratic Clubs and labor and women’s groups, has sent out a handful of mailers to voters already and has reserved a place on eight slate mailers.

By contrast, businessman Robert Oltman, the candidate with personal wealth running in the Republican primary in the 21st State Senate District, has the least money on hand, behind his two chief rivals, Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) and Wilbert Smith, Gov. Pete Wilson’s community relations director.

Oltman raised $27,824, most of it from a personal loan, and had $23,188 on hand at the end of the campaign contribution filing period, March 9. But his campaign manager, Brian O’Neel, says money has been coming in since then. “He has much more than appearances would [show],” O’Neel said.

Boland came barreling back from the dollar doldrums of the last filing period by raising $98,165 in one month, all but about $5,000 from outside the new Glendale-Burbank district she seeks to represent.

The bulk of her money came from donors in and around her current west San Fernando Valley Assembly district. Roughly $32,350 came from political action committees headquartered in Sacramento, including $10,000 from the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., a prison guards group.

Boland reports $95,681 cash on hand, but still owes her aide Scott Wilk’s campaign committee $40,000.

The third challenger, Wilbert Smith, came on strong by adding $68,000 to his account, but $40,000 of it is in loans. That gives him a healthy ending balance of $57,888, however, which he needed to have in order to trumpet his endorsement from outgoing state Sen. Newt Russell (R-Glendale).

Candidate Sharon R. Beauchamp reported donations of $5,595 and $3,817 cash on hand.

In the free-for-all Republican primary for James Rogan’s 43rd Assembly District seat, attorney and Glendale City Councilman Sheldon Baker is short of cash, showing an ending balance of $2,662, but that total was pumped up with $4,000 in loans late last week.

Businessman John Geranios, meanwhile, continues to pour his personal wealth into the campaign. He reported $126,000 in the bank, including a $100,000 personal loan, bringing the total amount he’s loaned himself to almost $400,000.

Baker, who raised about $24,000 and said that roughly $15,000 more has come in since the fund-raising period closed, said his campaign is on course. Several mailings are in the hands of voters, with more on the way.

“We don’t try to compete with him on spending,” Baker said. “Campaigns are won by people who buy into your campaign.”

Geranios and Baker have several other primary rivals, some of them with considerable funds of their own.

Police Officer Peter Repovich lent his campaign $45,500 in February, the bulk of the $53,958 brought into the campaign treasury. But he had only $101 on hand after paying bills of $60,000. To boost his balance, a supporter, K B Equities, came through late last week with a $25,000 loan.

A fourth challenger, Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Missakian, lent himself $15,000 for the final push which, when added to cash on hand, provides $24,117 for the balance of the campaign. Missakian said he expects another $10,000 to $20,000 to come in, either from donations or loans.

Finally, Peter Musurlian, chief deputy to Rep. Carlos Moorhead (D-Glendale), received $14,713 in donations during the monthlong period and ended with $3,337 on hand.

In the 40th Assembly District’s Democratic primary, attorney Bob Hertzberg has more than $60,000 cash on hand, compared to $35,000 for legislative aide Francine Oschin.

In the 38th Assembly seat being vacated by Boland, Republican candidate Tom McClintock raised $58,685 in recent weeks, far more than any of his five rivals. McClintock’s latest report showed he had $122,709 in cash for a final blitz before the election. He said he plans to spend about $170,000 in his primary campaign.

Ross Hopkins, a Canoga Park businessman who personally lent his campaign $79,000, said he plans to match McClintock’s spending in the GOP primary. Candidate Steve Frank had $36,250 cash on hand.

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In the race to replace retiring Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), Democratic candidate Brad Sherman raised $37,267 in January and February and had $156,717 in cash as of March 6, according to his campaign report.

Sherman, a member of the state Board of Equalization, kick-started his campaign last year with a personal loan of $275,000. That gave him the early edge in fund-raising over his six Democratic competitors in the 24th Congressional District race.

The report for Republican Rich Sybert, who came close to ousting Beilenson in 1994, was not immediately available. But his campaign director, John Theiss, said that Sybert raised about $25,000 in the first two months of the year and reported about $60,000 in cash to spend in the final weeks of the primary race.

Furthermore, Sybert raised more than $40,000 at a fund-raiser on Saturday that featured Rep. Sonny Bono (R-La Quinta) as the featured speaker, Theiss said.

Times staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss contributed to this story.

* DEBATE: Democratic candidates for 39th Assembly seat gather. B8