LOCAL ELECTIONS / L.A. MAYOR : Braude Loan Lifts Limits He Championed

Veteran Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, who backed a landmark reform law establishing campaign contribution limits, has become the first council candidate to trigger a lifting of the limits.

Braude did so by making a $58,500 personal loan to his reelection campaign during the weekend.

He notified the city Ethics Commission on Saturday that he had made a personal loan of more than $30,000, the threshold for triggering a provision in the ethics law that suspends a $500 limit on contributions to his two rivals.

Braude, a successful businessman who was first elected to the council 28 years ago, said in an interview that the no-interest loan was the first he has made to his political campaigns.

In the mayoral race, attorney Richard J. Riordan has triggered a similar lifting of the contribution limits by giving himself $3 million.

The ethics reform package, approved by voters in 1990 and affecting elections for the first time this year, provides public matching funds for candidates who agree to contribution and spending limits.

Like Riordan, Braude said he could not accept public matching money for his reelection bid at a time when Los Angeles faces severe budget problems that are likely to lead to cuts in services.

But Braude also acknowledged that he had planned to make the loan if his campaign’s “cash flow was not adequate.” And he said he did not want to take time away from his council duties to raise campaign money.

Although he reported collecting $77,200 for his reelection drive since July, Braude’s fund-raising pace slowed markedly in the last few months. He collected only slightly more than challenger Daniel Pritikin, a West Los Angeles attorney, in the last reporting period between Jan. 1 and March 6. Pritikin has raised $23,400.

Pritikin’s campaign manager, James Vaughn, said: “It’s obvious he is trying to buy the election.”

Braude is running for an eighth term representing the city’s affluent 11th Council District, which stretches from West Los Angeles to Pacific Palisades and from Van Nuys to Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley.