Election Money--the New, the Old, the Bid to Limit It : Minorities Helping Bradley; Ferraro Aided by GOP Whites

The 1985 Los Angeles mayoral race is pitting new money against old, as a rising generation of Democratic Asians and blacks support Mayor Tom Bradley, while many of the state’s most venerable white Republicans back City Councilman John Ferraro, Bradley’s main rival.

Going into the final weeks of the campaign, a Times computer study shows that about 50% of Bradley’s financial supporters are nonwhite Democrats, while more than 60% of Ferraro’s contributors are white Republicans, a number of whom say they are motivated by their dislike of Bradley.

“I have never been fond of Bradley. I just don’t like his politics. He is a dyed-in-the wool liberal Democrat,” said Holmes Tuttle, a wealthy car dealer and member of President Reagan’s old so-called Kitchen Cabinet, a group of California businessmen who were among Reagan’s earliest political patrons.

Santa Barbara Resident

Tuttle, a Santa Barbara resident, is one of several prominent conservatives who helped Republican George Deukmejian defeat Bradley in the 1982 gubernatorial race and who are now helping Ferraro, a Democrat who is generally more conservative than Bradley.

The study, conducted with the Times Poll, directed by I.A. Lewis, surveyed 818 people who contributed in 1985 and subjected their responses to computer analysis. The study revealed that Bradley also has received noteworthy Republican help this year.

Ira Distenfield, a Beverly Hills stockbroker, gave Bradley $17,000, more than any other contributor this year. Distenfield, who says he is a Republican and a strong supporter of President Reagan, said he decided to give to Bradley after the mayor announced his controversial decision to allow Occidental Petroleum Corp. to drill for oil in Pacific Palisades.

Seen as Rare Politician

“I thought to myself, here is a rare politician, one making an unpopular decision at election time,” Distenfield said. “If you have a few thousand in the bank, it seemed to me it was a duty to support someone like that.”

Overall, the trends in campaign financing this year break with past patterns, which saw Bradley and Ferraro receiving most of their money from the same group of people, one made up of largely Democratic white businessmen and lawyers.

With Bradley, who is black, the new trend reflects efforts to gain more support from nonwhites, especially from blacks, than he received during his unsuccessful 1982 campaign for governor against Deukmejian.

At the same time, some of Bradley’s black contributors say they expect to get more in return from a mayor who, they say, has not always been acutely sensitive to their needs.

“Our main interest is economic. We need access to the city’s business,” said Melanie Lomax, a lawyer and vice president of the local National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, who helped raise $15,000 for Bradley from a group of black lawyers and business people.

Blacks’ Share of Business

“We want to make sure that blacks have their fair share of the city’s business, whether it’s in construction, catering or bond counsel,” Lomax said.

Lomax wants the mayor’s ear on another issue as well. She is one of the principal advocates for more police protection for South-Central Los Angeles. As contributors, Lomax and others who agree with her position hope to compete on a more equal footing with politically active, predominantly white areas of town whose residents are afraid of losing police officers to South-Central neighborhoods.

Deputy Mayor Tom Houston said that the percentage of nonwhite contributors to Bradley in 1985 will decline in the closing days of the campaign as the mayor’s fund-raisers focus on traditional sources of money. But Houston said he anticipates the proportion of black and Asian givers to Bradley to remain comparatively high.

Before January, during the two years that Bradley was rebuilding his campaign treasury, 32% of his contributors were nonwhites, mostly Asians and blacks. During roughly the same period, only 14% of Ferraro’s contributors were not white.

The Times study of 1985 contributors is part of a broader look at the 2,437 contributors who have given Bradley and Ferraro more than $3.2 million since 1982. Bradley has received 63% of that money and Ferraro 37%.

Republican Strategists

Republican support for Ferraro bears the imprint of his two leading campaign strategists, Ron Smith and Joyce Valdez, who are known for their success in working with GOP candidates and contributors.

“Our strategy has been to go out to people who give ideologically,” Smith said. “They want a change in leadership.”

Many of Ferraro’s Republican backers are people, like members of the Orange County Lincoln Club, who do not live or do business in Los Angeles and who have not supported Ferraro in the past. Some of them are friends of Deukmejian who would like to deal Bradley a political blow that, if it doesn’t knock him out of the mayor’s office, will weaken his stature as a candidate for statewide office.

A major theme of the Ferraro campaign is that Bradley, once reelected, will turn his attention to running for governor in 1986. Bradley will say only that he does not plan to run for governor but will not rule it out.

Contributor Distenfield said that after giving $17,000 to Bradley, he was criticized by officials of the Republican National Committee.

“I don’t think the RNC has anything against Bradley. They just don’t want him to be reelected mayor by such a large margin that he becomes a threat to the Republican governor,” Distenfield said.

Change in Leadership

But many of Ferraro’s Republican backers say they are supporting him because they want a change in the city’s leadership and not because they are afraid that Bradley might pose a threat to Deukmejian.

“Bradley would have about as much chance against Deukmejian as a one-legged man in a kicking contest,” Tuttle said. Besides Tuttle, who gave $1,000, the most prominent Republican contributors to Ferraro include Henry Salvatori of Los Angeles, also a member of the kitchen cabinet, $2,500; Margaret Brock of Los Angeles, a founder of the Eagles, a group composed of the most generous Republican givers in the country, $500; Tirso del Junco, a former state party chairman and a key strategist in Deukmejian’s victory over Bradley, a $500 pledge, and former state Atty. Gen. Evelle Younger, a $500 pledge.

In addition, Ferraro has received $1,000 from the Surety Co. of the Pacific, which is headed by William Erwin, the man who gave more to Deukmejian’s 1982 campaign--$203,000--than any other contributor.

Deputy Mayor Houston said that Bradley’s campaign for minority support is part of a “grass-roots” appeal to small donors of all races that began with a letter, signed by actors Bill Cosby and Gregory Peck, asking for contributions of $20 to $50.

Among Asians, who represent 28% of Bradley’s 1985 contributors, Bradley is relying on a committee drawing its members from four elements of the Asian community--Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Filipino--and headed by actor George Takei.

Redevelopment Projects

Takei said that the mayor’s promotion of redevelopment in Little Tokyo and Chinatown have made him especially popular with Asian businessmen, many of whom, said Takei, are coming to the United States with a desire to play a role in politics.

“The newer immigrants from Korea and Southeast Asia are coming here with resources and sophistication,” Takei said. “They know about politics, and they are eager to take part.”

An example is Si Un Park who came to Los Angeles from Korea in 1972, started his own construction company and emerged last year as Bradley’s leading Asian contributor. Over the last three years, records indicate, he has given $20,000 to the mayor. Last summer during a shake-up of city commissioners, Bradley appointed Park to the Convention Center Authority. Park said this week he recently resigned from the commission for personal reasons.

Park said he became a large contributor for the same reason he began sweeping the sidewalk in front of his house and offering to look after his neighbors’ children when he moved to Los Angeles.

“At first, our neighbors were not very friendly. So, I wanted to show what kind of people we are.”

Additionally, Bradley has been an early and vigorous supporter of a primary ballot measure that would expand the City Council by two seats. Advocates believe the expansion would make it easier to elect an Asian and a Latino to the council.

About 17% of Bradley’s contributors this year have come from the black community, where fund raising has received a boost from the volunteer efforts of people like Lomax and William Hayling, a doctor who founded a group called “100 Black Men” that has raised $30,000 for Bradley’s campaign.

Black Neighborhoods

Lomax and Hayling said the mayor has been more visible in black neighborhoods this year and said that, during the last two years, he has worked in a variety of ways to improve his standing with blacks.

Hayling noted Bradley’s recent appointment of several black commissioners. Lomax praised Bradley’s part in redeveloping the Crenshaw shopping center. And she said his diplomacy was crucial in resolving two labor disputes in the black community involving the Adolph Coors Brewing Co. and McDonald’s restaurants. Bradley’s Asian and black contributors are alike in several respects.

Most of them are Democrats, homeowners, Protestant and range in age from 30 to 64. The majority of Asians surveyed said their annual incomes varied from $40,000 to $80,000. The majority of black contributors polled said they made $80,000 or more per year.

The majority of black contributors represent “a second generation of blacks in Los Angeles,” Lomax said. “They are the so-called ‘BUPPIES’ (Black Urban Professionals) and their concern is with economic opportunity.”

The Bradley and Ferraro camps take a disdainful view of each other’s contributors.

“The mayor’s contributors are interested in getting something in return. I’ll make a bet that a lot of those donors have a relationship with the city, a project or some interest they want to advance, though they probably won’t admit it,” said Ferraro’s manager, Smith.

Ferraro’s Supporters

According to the Times study, however, 22% of Bradley’s contributors said they had business connections with the city while 39% of Ferraro’s contributors made the same claim.

(The percentage of Bradley donors with business interests tied to the city is likely to increase in the final days of the campaign, as fund-raising efforts focus more on large land developers and corporations. Past analysis has shown that those givers frequently have projects that require the city’s approval.) Houston, commenting on Republican contributions to Ferraro, said he believes they were given more for the sake of “bloodying Tom Bradley” than of backing Ferraro.

“The type of campaign the Ferraro people are running is purely negative. You can’t win an election on negatives. But I don’t think they care about a win strategy,” Houston said.

BRADLEY VS. FERRARO--MONEY In an effort to compare contributors to the campaigns of Mayor Tom Bradley and his chief rival, City Councilman, John Ferraro, The Los Angeles Times Poll surveyed 790 donors who gave $100 or more in 1985. The data is based on a response rate of 67%

FERRARO DONORS BRADLEY DONORS PARTY AFFILIATION PARTY AFFILIATION Democrats 25% Democrats 52% Republicans 60% Republicans 29% RACE RACE Asians 1% Asians 29% Blacks 0% Blacks 17% Latinos 5% Latinos 3% Whites 93% Whites 50% INCOME INCOME $80,000 or more 77% $80,000 or more 59% CITY DEALINGS? Do business with city? 39% Do business with City 22% AGE AGE 45 or older 70% 45 or older 57% RELIGION RELIGION Protestant 35% Protestant 48% Catholic 28% Catholic 20% Jewish 26% Jewish 19% HOME OWNERSHIP HOME OWNERSHIP Own their homes 90% Own their homes 92%

Susan Pinkus of the Times Poll assisted in the preparation of this story.