Seymour Leads Bergeson in Funds : Politics: The state Senator from Anaheim has raised $767,000 in his bid for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor, a lead of more than $100,000.

With $767,000 in campaign contributions collected as of Tuesday, state Sen. John Seymour of Anaheim is outpacing his expected rival, Sen. Marian Bergeson of Newport Beach, by more than $100,000 in the GOP race for lieutenant governor.

Considering that Bergeson’s total of $645,000 includes $200,000 that she carried over from her state Senate war chest, Seymour’s fund-raising appeared all the more impressive. Seymour started his drive from scratch last March.

Seymour, 52, formally declared his candidacy Monday, while Bergeson, 62, is expected to do so this week. The winner of June’s GOP primary will go on to face Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, a Democrat, in the November general election.

Seymour described his superior fund-raising as proof that he has stronger statewide support than Bergeson, adding that he raised 80% of his contributions from outside his Orange County senatorial district.

“I feel proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, but we have a long way to go,” Seymour said Tuesday from his office in Sacramento.

Bergeson played down the fund-raising comparisons, asserting that her political strength lies in a statewide network of volunteers that she is counting on to help get out the vote.

“I think there is far more to the campaign than money,” Bergeson said Tuesday from her office in Sacramento.

Political analysts, however, say the campaign for lieutenant governor will be won or lost on television--and that it takes money to buy TV commercial time.

“Usually, the person with the healthiest budget is able to start the TV campaign first,” said Greg Haskin, executive director of the Republican Party of Orange County.

And whoever emerges victorious from the GOP primary will need even more money to unseat McCarthy in the general election, Haskin and other analysts said.

Both Seymour and Bergeson said they would have to raise between $3 million and $5 million to wage an effective challenge against the formidable incumbent. For the GOP primary, Seymour’s goal is to raise $1.5 million and Bergeson’s is to raise $1 million.

“The challenge will be in raising another three-quarters of a million dollars in less than half the time,” Seymour noted.

Bergeson said that she, too, is confident of reaching her fund-raising goal. Both she and Seymour have organized campaign committees throughout the state: Seymour claims representation in all 58 California counties, with the exception of Yuba County. While admittedly not having committees in every county, Bergeson said her campaign is represented in all the state’s geographic regions.

“This is still just the beginning” of the race, Bergeson added.

The real face-off between the two is expected to begin in mid-April, when candidates for statewide office typically begin their television campaigns.

“Unfortunately, running a statewide race and building name identification across the state in an office other than governor is simply a method of buying the right TV time and having a great producer and director of your commercials,” Haskin said. “And it is a matter of being lucky enough to hit on the right message for voters.”

Bergeson said her anticipated $1 million in contributions would be more than enough to buy her television time throughout California. She said that her staff has already purchased television spots in the final weeks before the primary.

Seymour said he would soon be spending most of his money on television spots. He conceded that both he and Bergeson do not have high name recognition in the state.

“We have to raise the dollars” to get that recognition, Seymour said.

Seymour, a former Anaheim mayor and state senator since 1982, has had more experience than Bergeson as a political fund-raiser. As chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus from 1983 until 1987, he raised more than $1 million for his GOP colleagues. Seymour also was chairman of U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson’s executive steering committee in his 1988 reelection campaign, a job that required him to raise money throughout the state.

Bergeson, a former Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustee who was elected to the Assembly in 1978 and then to the state Senate in 1984, is seen by Orange County Republican analysts as less aggressive than Seymour though still an effective fund-raiser.

“I think I can network statewide,” Bergeson said in a past interview.