Deukmejian Runs Far Ahead in Money Race : Governor Taps Broader Base of Contributors, Raises 7 Times as Much as Opponent Bradley

Republican Gov. George Deukmejian has raised seven times as much money as Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley by building a broader support base, with contributions pouring in from a large cadre of true believers representing the rich and middle class and businesses big and small, while Bradley so far has not developed the broad grass-roots financial backing he has sought.

That was a finding of a Los Angeles Times survey of contributors to the two gubernatorial candidates, which showed the success of the fund-raising plan conceived by Deukmejian and his top aides 16 months ago and quietly executed in computer-equipped offices on the 28th floor of a downtown Los Angeles office building.

Survey of Contributors

The poll is part of a continuing Times statewide survey of contributors to the gubernatorial race designed to provide a picture of those who furnish the money to elect the state’s chief executive. Telephone interviewers contacted 3,537 Deukmejian contributors and 330 Bradley contributors who gave from January to December of 1985.

The smaller number of Bradley contributors is at least partly due to the fact that Deukmejian’s statewide fund-raising drive began months before Bradley started raising money for his gubernatorial campaign. The mayor was engaged in a successful reelection effort through part of last year.

Told of the survey findings, Bradley campaign manager Mary Nichols said: “They mean we must accelerate our efforts.” She said the campaign has begun to reach out statewide for contributors.

Even taking into account Deukmejian’s head start, the governor’s fund-raising effort is impressive in its scope, wider than any he has undertaken so far and tangible evidence of a well-planned, well-organized campaign.

By using such techniques as getting more than 7,000 people to attend seven dinners last fall--six of them at $250 a head and one at $135--Deukmejian picked up strong support from middle-class backers who cannot afford the higher prices usually charged at political fund-raisers. These dinners grossed nearly $1.6 million.

The success of that effort was reflected by these survey figures: Deukmejian received 53% of his money from those making more than $100,000 compared to 68% for Bradley, whose backing in the early stages of the campaign came more from traditional mayoral sources. Contributors who either had done business with the city and state or who represented persons who had done such business made up 46% of Bradley’s list, compared to 33% of Deukmejian’s.

The telephone survey of contributors also showed that Deukmejian is cutting into Asian support, a bastion of Bradley financial strength in past campaigns.

Harold Chuang, partner in an accounting firm and president of a California Asian Republican group, said: “The main issue is most Asians do not believe in the social programs. They are expensive and create bad habits. We were told for years that the Democratic Party was the party for minorities. But the Republican Party is more consistent with Asian thinking. Asians are more for private enterprise.”

But the mayor is holding onto the loyalty of Jewish contributors, despite unhappiness last year by some members of the Jewish community over Bradley’s delay in criticizing Louis Farrakhan, the Black Muslim minister who has made anti-Semitic remarks. More than a third of Bradley contributors interviewed said they were Jewish, compared to just 5% for Deukmejian.

Jewish Backing

Republican stockbroker Ira Distenfield, a major Bradley contributor and executive finance chairman for the mayor’s campaign, said: “I am of the Jewish faith, I come from an Orthodox home. I personally feel . . . Tom Bradley is as good a friend of the state of Israel as you will find. I think the Farrakhan thing, for those who did not take the time to learn about it, hit a lot of people, at first, badly, but I think as people learned about it, it no longer was the issue it was.

“Probably there will be those who will not write a check because of it. But for those of us who have a deep Jewish background, I feel very strongly about having a friend of Israel like Tom Bradley as governor of California.”

And while Deukmejian has been more effective in building a coalition of rich and middle-class givers, his contributors are almost all white. The mayor continues to have more ethnically diverse support, reflecting the long loyalty of California minorities to him and the Democratic Party.

For example, 94% of Deukmejian’s contributors are white, compared to 78% for Bradley. Blacks constitute 9% of contributors to Bradley, who is black, but only 1% of those giving to Deukmejian. Even though Deukmejian had Asian support, only 4% of his contributors were Asian, while Bradley had 9%. And 3% of Bradley’s contributors were Latino, compared to Deukmejian’s 1%.

Deeper Commitment

The survey also indicated that the Deukmejian contributors have a deeper commitment to their candidate than the Bradley backers.

The survey sought to measure depth of commitment by asking the contributors to tell why they gave money.

More Bradley contributors than Deukmejian donors said they “expected some kind of benefit in return for their money”--by a 13% to 8% margin. When asked if “they believed in what the candidate stands for,” 61% of the Deukmejian supporters replied yes, while only 44% of the Bradley supporters replied in the affirmative.

In follow-up interviews with Deukmejian supporters, contributors told a Times reporter that they admired the governor for carrying out a 1982 campaign promise not to raise general taxes, for improving the state’s fiscal picture and for taking a stand against California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

Cites His Courage

Deukmejian contributor Jane A. Crosby of South Pasadena, a longtime conservative Republican activist, said: “He seems to have a lot of strength in carrying out the things he said he would in the campaign, like not raising taxes and getting the state out of debt. And he has the courage to take a stand on the Rose Bird issue. You really know where you stand with that man.”

Interviews with Bradley contributors indicated that they admire the way he has done his job as mayor. They cited his involvement with the 1984 Summer Olympics and praised his even-handedness on racial issues and his support of downtown redevelopment and modernization of Los Angeles International Airport. “I think he would be the same kind of governor as he has been mayor,” said Harold L. Williams, an architect. “He would look at statewide issues and, being fair, he would do something about the issues that would do the most good for the most people.”

Older Supporters

Deukmejian contributors tended to be older. Seventy-six percent of his contributions came from people 45 and above, compared to 63% for Bradley, who led among contributors 18 to 44 years of age, 37% to 24%.

Apparently reflecting strong support from Los Angeles businesses, many of which are run by Republicans, Bradley received 25% of his contributions from Republicans, while the Deukmejian contributors number only 8% Democrats.

Both candidates benefited from their ties to California’s business community. Business made up the largest category of contributors to both men.

Real estate interests--builders, developers, engineers, architects, mobile home parks and real estate dealers--were the No. 1 givers to both gubernatorial candidates, accounting for 24% of Bradley’s contributions and 17% of Deukmejian’s. Financial institutions--including banks, investment companies and savings and loans--constituted 16% of Bradley’s contributions and 12% of Deukmejian’s.

Service Support

Service industries--which include the junk business, landfills, management consultants, mortuaries, retail stores, restaurants and recreation--provided 14% of Bradley’s total and 12% of Deukmejian’s.

A substantial portion, 12%, of the Deukmejian service contributions came from landfill operators, who contributed $70,760. Among these were Operating Industries Inc., which operates a controversial hazardous waste site in Monterey Park, and TSD Systems Corp., which is seeking a permit to operate a Kern County hazardous waste treatment facility.

Mike Milner, vice president of the firm, which gave $10,000, said the company is now dealing with two state agencies, the Department of Health Services and the Regional Water Quality Control Board, to get permits to open the facility within the next 12 months.

On the List

“We’re Republicans and we get called on quite frequently during election time,” he said. “You know how it is once you get on one of those lists.”

Bradley, who has sharply criticized Deukmejian for delays in coping with hazardous waste disposal and who supports a strong regulatory bill that the governor opposes, received no money from landfill operators.

Both men have benefited from a segment of the financial community that is becoming a major political contributor, the investment firms marketing the billions of dollars in bonds that governments sell each year to pay for various projects.

Deukmejian received $754,820 from these financial sources, compared to Bradley’s $115,650. Investment firms contributed $182,560 to Deukmejian and $94,500 to Bradley.

Job Performance

Bill Thompson, a managing director of the Salomon Bros. investment firm, said his company gave $10,000 to Deukmejian because it approved of his fiscal performance.

“We had a case here where a governor came in and did a good job in regards to fiscal responsibility. I think he has done a very good job,” he said. “When I was asked for financial support (by the Deukmejian campaign), I felt that was a smart thing to do. My basic philosophy was to suggest to Salomon Bros. and the other managing directors, through our political action committee, to support his campaign.”

The huge Deukmejian lead is evidence of the success of the governor’s fund-raising plan and of his finance chairman, Karl M. Samuelian, partner in the downtown Los Angeles law firm of Parker, Milliken, Clark, O’Hara & Samuelian. Samuelian is a quiet, dignified man who ran into Deukmejian at an Armenian church banquet in the early 1970s and immediately became a fan.

New Recruits

As a Deukmejian finance co-chairman in the governor’s 1982 campaign, Samuelian helped conceive the idea of recruiting new, non-traditional Republican contributors because most of the traditional GOP money was going to Deukmejian’s 1982 primary opponent, then-Lt. Gov. Mike Curb. He signed up Armenians new to politics, as well as law and business acquaintances and friends he met in his practice and in his civic and social life, which included membership in the California Club, the Los Angeles Country Club and the board of directors of the socially prominent Westlake School.

“We introduced George Deukmejian to people we thought would be interested in supporting him, not the Republican Establishment; they were supporting Mike Curb,” Samuelian said. Lunches were held for 30 to 40 people and “people had a chance to speak to him (Deukmejian) on a one-to-one basis, and that worked.”

A more sophisticated version of that plan was put together in January, 1985, in a series of meetings between Deukmejian, Samuelian, campaign accountant Pat Formsby and Deukmejian aides Steve Merksamer and Kenneth Kachigian, who also writes speeches for Deukmejian and has been a speech writer for President Reagan.

Computer Efforts

A campaign finance committee quickly occupied a suite of offices one floor above Samuelian’s law office in the Security Pacific Building. Four staffers were hired, and computers installed. Samuelian himself is a volunteer. The name of every contributor or potential giver was entered, and the list continually updated. When a county chairman prepares a fund-raiser, a list is provided of potential ticket purchasers in that area.

“Everyone who has contributed a dollar upwards is on the list,” Samuelian said. “We can mobilize very quickly and save time. They don’t have to organize from scratch. The events are set up very quickly. We are much more organized than we were in 1982.

“We have to raise at least what we raised during the prior campaign, which is $8.5 million,” said Samuelian. “We are pretty far along. I think we will raise another couple of million. The mayor has his support group out there. He got started late. He had (a mayoral) election to win, but he is going full speed now. I am planning on him raising as much as we have been able to raise.”

Outlooks for Totals

Bradley campaign manager Nichols said she expects Deukmejian to raise $17 million to the mayor’s $7 million to $9 million. “I am planning on the basis of being outspent 2 to 1,” she said.

Trying to gain ground on Deukmejian, the Bradley staff is coming up with a computerized, grass-roots approach of its own. Starting late, after Bradley’s mayoral election, top money-raising consultant Irene Tritschler put contributor names into a computer bank, hoping to correct a past Bradley flaw in which Democrats often were not contacted for money. Nichols, for example, was never asked for a contribution during the 1982 gubernatorial race or the mayoral campaign, even though she is a highly visible Democratic activist and has contributed to many other campaigns.

In addition, a mailed appeal for funds will soon be financed by the Democratic National Committee and a series of small, economy-priced fund-raising dinners, like those held by Deukmejian, are planned.

Different in ’82

Nichols said small-scale dinners were discouraged in 1982, when Bradley narrowly lost to Deukmejian. “The traditional thinking was that it is not worth the candidate’s time to show up at events at which he does not raise $25,000,” Nichols said.

Asked if she was discouraged by the possibility of being outspent 2 to 1 by Deukmejian, Nichols said: “No. If I was discouraged by that sort of thing, I would have given up being a Democrat a long time ago.”

INCOME

The Los Angeles Times Poll shows this comparison of contributions to Bradley (solid) and Deukmejian (hatch) by income:

Less than $100,000 Bradley 29% Deukmejian 43%

Over $100,000 Bradley 68% Deukmejian 53%

RELIGION

The Los Angeles Times Poll shows this comparison of contributions to Bradley (solid) and Deukmejian (hatch) by religious group:

Protestant Bradley 43% Deukmejian 57%

Catholic Bradley 14% Deukmejian 20%

Jewish Bradley 34% Deukmejian 5%

RACE

The Los Angeles Times Poll shows this comparison of contributions to Bradley (solid) and Deukmejian (hatch) by race:

White Bradley 78% Deukmejian 94%

Asian Bradley 9% Deukmejian 4%

Black Bradley 9% Deukmejian 1%

Latino Bradley 3% Deukmejian 1%

BUSINESS DEALINGS

The Los Angeles Times Poll shows this comparison of contributions to Bradley (solid) and Deukmejian (hatch) contributors who said they or their clients do business with the city and / or state:

Bradley 46% Deukmejian 33%

AGE

The Los Angeles Times Poll shows this comparison of contributions to Bradley (solid) and Deukmejian (hatch) by age groupings:

18-44 Bradley 37% Deukmejian 24%

Over 45 Bradley 63% Deukmejian 76%

PARTY AFFILIATION

The Los Angeles Times Poll shows this comparison of contributions to Bradley (solid) and Deukmejian (hatch) by party affiliation:

Democrats Bradley 55% Deukmejian 8%

Republicans Bradley 25% Deukmejian 78%

REASONS

The Los Angeles Times Poll shows this comparison of contributions to Bradley (solid) and Deukmejian (hatch) by reason for contributing:

Believe in what candidate stands for Bradley 44% Deukmejian 61%

Expect something in return Bradley 13% Deukmejian 8%

DONOR CATEGORIES

The Los Angeles Times Poll shows this comparison of contributions to Bradley (solid) and Deukmejian (hatch):

Real Estate Bradley 24% Deukmejian 17%

Finance Bradley 16% Deukmejian 12%

Service Bradley 14% Deukmejian 12%

Attorneys Bradley 9% Deukmejian 9%

Agr-business Bradley 0% Deukmejian 8%

Research for this story was coordinated by Susan Pinkus of the Times poll.