1988 Legislative Races: $40.4-Million Spending Spree

SACRAMENTO —  Candidates for the state Legislature spent $40.45 million during last year’s general election cycle, almost a 26% increase over the 1986 general election figure, the Fair Political Practices Commission reported on Monday.

The FPPC report showed Assembly candidates in 80 races raised $24.71 million and spent $30.33 million. Senate candidates vying for 20 upper house seats raised $8.38 million and spent $9.88 million. As these figures suggest, many candidates must continue fund-raising after election day to pay off sizable campaign debts.

Sen. Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk) and Republican Don Knabe, a former Cerritos city councilman and chief of staff for Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, waged the most expensive fall campaign, spending a total of $2.35 million.

The incumbent successfully defended a Senate seat that he won in an expensive special election only a year earlier.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) reported spending $1.9 million, most it to help other Democrats get elected. Roberti gave Green $600,000.

On the Assembly side, the most expensive race was the $1.85-million contest between Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg (D-Sacramento) and losing Republican challenger Larry Bowler, a Sacramento County sheriff’s lieutenant.

Next in line was a $1.81-million campaign between Republican Curt Pringle, a Garden Grove planning commissioner, and Democrat Christian F. (Rick) Thierbach, a Riverside County prosecutor who lives in Anaheim.

Pringle won the contest to replace the late Assemblyman Richard Longshore (R-Anaheim), who died the day after he won the GOP primary nomination.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) reported spending $2.74 million, but he also transferred most of his money to other Democratic candidates.

Proposition 73, a campaign financing initiative approved by the voters last year, prohibits the transfer of funds by legislative leaders to their colleagues.

It also limits contributions by individuals and businesses to $1,000 each fiscal year, political action committees with two or members to $2,500, and broad-based political action committees that have been in existence for more than six months and have 100 or more members to $5,000.

Senate leader Roberti and Speaker Brown have filed lawsuits contending that Proposition 73 is unconstitutional.