Political Campaigns Finances

Campaign season has just begun in the most electorally lopsided county in the state, where "two-party politics" means Democrat and, well, Democrat, and the Republican Central Committee recently met to make its big quadrennial decision: which Democrat to endorse for mayor. Hard on the heels of the Pledge of Allegiance, addressed to the kind of miniature flag that sticks out of graves on Memorial Day, the committee launched into fight No.

We raised money -- $100 million over the last 17 years -- for candidates and ballot initiatives. Known as "fortune tellers," we "delivered" big bags of "doughnuts" (campaign contributions) to our clients -- sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. And as reformed sinners, we are here to tell you that the current system is not just broken, it is irrevocably broken.

With time running out and bills stacking up, the Senate was hogtied by a Republican filibuster Friday as lawmakers plunged once more into partisan rancor over the Democrats' version of legislation to reform the way political campaigns are financed. Driven by their fear of an angry electorate that increasingly sees Congress as a dysfunctional institution, Democrats were pressing hard for passage of campaign finance reform.

Five years ago, a conservative analyst named David M. Mason penned a critique of the campaign reform movement titled "Why Congress Can't Ban Soft Money." Earlier this year, as lawmakers sought to prove him wrong, he attacked elements of their reform bill as "unworkable or unenforceable."

His boss is James T. Riady, the elusive billionaire who refuses to answer Senate investigators' questions about his relationship with President Clinton. Another of his longtime superiors was John Huang, the fallen Democratic fund-raiser who also is refusing to talk. In fact, James E. Per Lee, president and chief executive officer of LippoBank California, has spent more time with Riady and Huang than any federal agent or congressional staffer assigned to the campaign finance investigations.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Gloria Molina said Friday that she is cooperating with a criminal investigation into allegations that the bookkeeper of her 1986 reelection committee embezzled more than $9,800 of her campaign funds. Molina said she notified the district attorney's office soon after learning from state auditors late last year that nine checks totaling $9,811.50 were not disclosed in the committee's campaign statements.

Michael J. Perik, a software pioneer from Canada who became a U.S. citizen just this summer, is so determined to influence America's politics that he has donated close to half a million dollars to put Vice President Al Gore in the White House. Trevor Pearlman, a trial lawyer originally from South Africa, hosted a half-million-dollar fund-raising dinner for Gore at his Dallas home and marvels that an immigrant can gain access to the country's top government officials.

The former president of a tiny Arkansas bank was indicted Tuesday by a Whitewater grand jury for alleged irregularities in the financing of President Clinton's 1990 campaign for governor of Arkansas. The indictment of Neal T. Ainley, once president of the Bank of Perry County, was obtained from a grand jury in Little Rock, Ark., by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr as part of his sweeping investigation of Clinton's personal investments and campaign financing before he became President.

When candidate Ehud Barak navigated the art-bedecked hallways of entertainment mogul Haim Saban's Beverly Hills mansion nearly a year ago, the future Israeli prime minister was stepping unmistakably into the world of high-stakes politics and big bucks. As many Israeli politicians did elsewhere, Barak appeared at the fund-raiser and spoke about his views to a small gathering of Hollywood producers and elite political activists, Israelis and Americans.

On at least three occasions last year, campaign contributions to Los Angeles Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. were brought to his San Pedro district office despite a ban on such political activity in city offices, five former Svorinich aides have told The Times. Further, one of the aides says that last year he saw Svorinich with an envelope of campaign checks--from Ft. Worth, Tex., contributors--totaling thousands of dollars.

Retired state Sen. Charles Calderon, a candidate for attorney general in 1998, was fined $18,000 Friday for violating political reform laws, including treating himself and his fiancee to a vacation at a Lake Tahoe resort casino and renting a limousine for the premier of "Liar, Liar."

Despite tapping deep-pockets backers he knows from Sacramento, Assemblyman Tony Cardenas trails DreamWorks SKG executive Wendy Greuel in fund-raising in the contest for the 2nd District seat on the Los Angeles City Council, according to papers filed Thursday.

The spending limit was lifted in the race for the 4th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council after candidate Beth Garfield notified the Ethics Commission that she has spent more than $275,000 on campaign expenses. As a result, her opponent, Tom LaBonge, is free to spend more than $275,000 and still receive city matching funds. Garfield, who has lent her campaign for the Oct. 23 runoff election $350,000, had not accepted city matching funds and the voluntary spending limit.

A record number of candidates agreed to spending limits in this year's Los Angeles municipal elections, while current and former elected officials benefited from an unprecedented amount of independent expenditures, according to a report Thursday by the city Ethics Commission.

Los Angeles City Council candidate Beth Garfield said Monday she has loaned her campaign another $350,000 in personal funds, which lifts some contribution limits for opponent Tom LaBonge and promises one of the most expensive council runoffs the city has ever seen. The loan was disclosed as the candidates squared off in North Hollywood in a spirited debate over revamping the LAPD, expanding Sunshine Canyon Landfill and over each other's record.

It started when Richard Riordan spent $6 million of his own money to help win the Los Angeles mayor's office in 1993. Since then, a host of wealthy candidates, from liberal firebrand Tom Hayden to conservative businessman Steve Soboroff, have tapped their ample bank accounts in an attempt to win election to City Hall. As Hayden and Soboroff demonstrated this year, the financial gamble does not always pay off.

Siun Park was scrubbing office floors in 1973 when he first tried to see the new mayor of Los Angeles. A secretary politely informed Park that Tom Bradley had no time for a private visit with a janitor. "I said, 'No, I want to talk to mayor,' " recalled the 50-year-old Park, who said he called the mayor's office at least three times, making the secretary "a little bit mad." But his persistence paid off.

Mayor Fred Hunter has received a sizable contribution to his reelection campaign from the Los Angeles Rams. So has Councilman Tom Daly, who is simultaneously seeking reelection and trying to unseat Hunter as mayor. The Rams have also been kind to the reelection bid of Councilman William D. Ehrle. But the football team has not given a cent to the nine challengers attempting to upset the status quo.

Beth Garfield, a labor lawyer who once led the Los Angeles Community College District board, held onto her sizable fund-raising lead Friday in the race to replace the late John Ferraro on the Los Angeles City Council. Garfield has raised more than $500,000 in her bid to represent the 4th Council District, but two-thirds of the money came from loans she made to her own campaign. In the last two weeks, she has been outpaced in the money marathon by two other top contenders, former state Sen.

Voting 12 to 2, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday upheld Mayor James K. Hahn's veto of a measure that would have shortened the amount of time during which candidates can raise money for their campaigns. Instead, the council agreed to work with Hahn to come up with a more comprehensive approach to campaign finance reform.