CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : Flood of Last-Minute Campaign Dollars Fuels Key State Races : Donations: The Democratic Party has spent $525,000 in two days. Interest groups and Republicans are fighting back.

SACRAMENTO —  In the final countdown before Tuesday’s election, political parties, campaign committees and special interests are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, seeking to grab a final advantage in state legislative races and initiative contests by paying for last-minute mailers and advertisements.

Over the past two days, the state Democratic Party has spent $525,000 on individual races--almost all of it in an effort to retain control of the Assembly.

But the Republicans, led by Gov. Pete Wilson and with the backing of conservative groups such as the National Rifle Assn., have been firing back, spending sizable sums on GOP candidates who are locked in close races.

In one case, a conservative group, Citizens for Responsible Representation, spent $15,250 on behalf of a Green Party candidate in a thinly veiled effort to take votes away from Democratic Assemblyman Dan Hauser of Arcata.

Hauser, whose district runs along the Northern California coastline, is fighting for his political survival against Republican challenger Anna L. Sparks. Through mid-October, the two had raised about the same amount of money--$190,00 for Hauser and $164,000 for Sparks. But both parties have been pouring money into the race over the past two weeks. On Friday, the Democratic Party reported spending an additional $116,000 on Hauser’s reelection effort.

The same day, the National Rifle Assn. reported donating $71,000 to several GOP legislative candidates--including $10,000 to Phillip D. Hawkins of Bellflower, who is trying to unseat Democratic Assemblyman Bob Epple of Cerritos in a swing legislative district. The NRA also sent $20,000 to Assembly Republican Leader Bill Jones of Fresno, who has been funneling cash to other GOP candidates.

Also contributing to Hawkins and other conservative candidates is the Allied Business Political Action Committee, which is financed by Orange County multimillionaire Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson Jr. and three other businessmen. These individuals have embraced candidates and causes that are closely associated with the religious right.

On Friday, the group reported donating $25,000 to Hawkins and $54,000 to two other conservative Republican candidates for the Assembly--Larry Bowler of Sacramento and Steve Baldwin of El Cajon.

The Democrats’ top fund-raiser, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco, late last week transferred $540,000 to the state Democratic Party to pay for political mailings for legislative candidates.

The Democrats hold a 47-33 edge over the GOP in the Assembly, but newly drawn districts and the departure of 28 members have meant hard-fought contests statewide.

Several initiative campaigns are proving as hard-fought as legislative races.

That is particularly true for Proposition 167, the so-called “tax-the-rich” ballot measure that would cut sales taxes while increasing taxes on business and upper-income individuals. By Saturday, opponents had spent more than $10.4 million to defeat the initiative.

One of the top contributors has been the Walt Disney Co., which on Saturday reported sending an additional $120,000 to the anti-167 campaign, bringing its total spending to $574,000.

Other companies providing late contributions to defeat the measure are BankAmerica Corp., which gave the anti-167 campaign $100,000; the Irvine Co., which donated $50,000, and Lockheed Corp., which gave $25,000.

Proposition 166, the California Medical Assn.-sponsored initiative, has also generated strong opposition from health insurance companies and other businesses, which have contributed more than $6.4 million to defeat the measure. The proposal would require employers in California to provide basic health insurance coverage for most workers.

Late last week, the Woodland Hills Life Insurance Co., a Blue Cross affiliate, contributed an additional $100,000 to defeat the initiative.

The committee to defeat Wilson’s Proposition 165, which would cut welfare benefits and increase the governor’s power to trim the state budget, also garnered several notable last-minute contributions last week. The state Democratic Party spent an additional $236,000 to help beat the measure, and state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, a Democrat, transferred $10,000 in contributions from her political committee to the anti-165 effort.

Brown, who is not on the ballot this year, has also been using her campaign money to help Democratic Assembly candidates, sending $5,000 last week to both Margaret Snyder of Modesto and incumbent Dede Alpert of Coronado.