ELECTIONS ’88 ORANGE COUNTY : $1.4-Million War Chest : Late Donations Boost Green’s Senate Drive

Late contributions have pushed Sen. Cecil N. Green’s campaign war chest over the $1.4-million mark as Orange County’s only Democratic legislator battles to retain his politically crucial 33rd state Senate District seat.

Green, a former Norwalk councilman who won the post in a May, 1987, special election, has received $355,775 in cash and non-monetary contributions in the past 10 days alone, according to state campaign finance records.

The campaign’s largest donor since Oct. 22 has been Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti, the influential Los Angeles Democrat who has contributed $152,300 in cash and in-kind services. Roberti considers the seat a must-win to protect both his powerful leadership position and the Democratic majority in the Senate. Roberti or political committees that he controls have now contributed a total of $407,243 to Green’s reelection.

During the same 10-day period since Oct. 22, Republican Don Knabe, Green’s opponent, has received $181,969 in cash and non-monetary contributions, bringing his total for the campaign to $835,759. Nearly half that amount has come from the state Republican Party.

By eclipsing the $2-million mark, the Green-Knabe race may become the most expensive legislative contest in California this year.

Green made state political history last year when he defeated Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk) in a special election that saw Republicans and Democrats spend $3 million. That race remains the most expensive legislative contest in state history.

“It’s absolutely incredible what the Democrats are spending,” Knabe’s campaign manager, Jackie Campbell, said of this year’s contest.

Walter Zelman, executive director of Common Cause, a citizens’ lobbying group, said “the unprecedented spending” in the 33rd District is the result of both parties’ struggling for control of the Statehouse when legislative boundaries are redrawn, beginning in 1990.

“This kind of spending exposes a real problem in our political system,” Zelman said. “This kind of money can’t be raised from ordinary citizens. . . . It is coming from special interest groups and power brokers worried about reapportionment.”

A portion of Green’s money has been spent on last-minute mail sent to voters in the suburban district that spreads across southeast Los Angeles County and northwest Orange County.

The late contributions also will be used to finance a massive get-out-the-vote push on Election Day, Green consultant Larry Sheingold said. Just as in the special election, the Democrats plan to mobilize hundreds of volunteers to phone and transport voters to polling places, he said. At least six staging areas, he explained, will be set up districtwide to dispatch vans and mini-buses equipped with cellular phones to pick up voters.

Aid From Staffers

As an indication of the crucial importance of the race, Sheingold said that about 50 Sacramento staff members of Democratic senators will be taking temporary leaves and joining the Green campaign and that some of their expenses will be paid by the campaign.

One reason for some of the large and late contributions, Sheingold suggested, is concern about the uses to which campaign money can be put after Jan. 1, when Proposition 73, a campaign finance reform measure passed by voters in June, becomes law. The measure limits campaign contributions to $1,000 to $5,000, depending on the kind of donor, and it prohibits transfers of funds from one campaign to another, such as those Roberti has made to Green. It places restrictions on contributions, but not spending.