ELECTIONS / CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS : Challengers Lag Far Behind in Fund-Raising Race

WASHINGTON —  For election challengers, the toughest hurdle to political viability is often the first: securing enough campaign funds to make themselves heard.

A group of challengers seeking to depose three longtime San Fernando Valley-area congressional incumbents appears to be stalled at that hurdle.

Six weeks before the June 2 primaries, veteran Reps. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale), Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) have vast fund-raising advantages over both primary and would-be general election opponents, according to interviews and recent campaign reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Moorhead has $734,432 on hand, with two major fund-raisers planned later this year. Berman raised $8,530 between Jan. 1 and March 31, the period covered in the latest report, and has $330,444 available. Waxman has taken in $30,110 this year and has a total of $851,920.

By contrast, no challenger in the three districts has raised as much as $10,000, according to campaign reports available early this week.

And this was supposed to be a tough year for incumbents. All House members are running in new districts that were redrawn based on population shifts reflected in the 1990 U.S. census. This once-a-decade reapportionment--forcing incumbents to introduce themselves to significant numbers of new voters--combined with a national anti-incumbent mood has helped to draw more challengers than usual into the fray.

But financial returns showing contributions up to March 31 suggest that most Valley challengers will have to scramble for funds to pay for brochures, mailing costs, signs or ads.

The lone exception is in the new 24th Congressional District--which includes the southern and western sections of the Valley and part of Ventura County--where Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) is facing a reelection struggle on more conservative terrain than the Westside-based 23rd District that he now represents.

In the 24th District GOP primary, Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) collected $54,857 during the first three months of the year; international trade consultant Jim Salomon of Calabasas, $37,190; attorney Nicholas T. Hariton of Sherman Oaks, $35,535, and businessman Sang Korman of Calabasas, $23,605. Beilenson, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary, reported raising $35,443 in the first quarter of the year.

Hariton, 35, said he resigned his position with the prominent Los Angeles law firm O’Melveny & Myers in February to run for Congress. The first-time candidate has loaned his campaign $20,000 and said he will kick in additional money if necessary. He described himself as “fiscally conservative but socially moderate” and said he favors abortion rights.

In the 25th Congressional District, the only district in which there is no incumbent, well-funded candidates have flocked to enter the race.

Attorney James H. Gilmartin, a Saugus Democrat running in the new, heavily Republican district, has loaned his campaign $100,000, according to his report. Gilmartin, who also raised $2,000, is unopposed in the Democratic primary in the district, which includes the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys and part of the northwest San Fernando Valley.

The longtime Santa Clarita Valley attorney ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Congress nearly two decades ago and has played a limited role in party activities since then. He described himself as “moderate, leaning to conservative.”

Gilmartin, 58, vowed to loan his campaign additional funds and spend “whatever it takes to win” but declined to be more specific. Individual contributions are limited to $1,000 per election, but candidates can donate or loan unlimited amounts to their own campaigns.

In the GOP primary, Santa Clarita Councilman Howard (Buck) McKeon reported that he had raised $76,251 and loaned his campaign $75,000 during the reporting period; Assemblyman Phillip Wyman (R-Tehachapi) raised $58,279; former Rep. John H. Rousselot of Lancaster collected $17,254, and former Los Angeles County Assessor John J. Lynch of Northridge raised $1,650 and loaned his campaign $6,000.

Moorhead, who is seeking an 11th two-year term in a new 27th Congressional District that extends from Burbank through the San Gabriel Valley to Monrovia, faces three little-known Republican opponents.

Lionel Allen Jr., an Altadena financial consultant and disabled veteran, has run for Congress twice. He lost a GOP primary in 1988 in a Long Beach-based district and lost in 1986 in a district that includes parts of downtown Los Angeles and the Westside. He has switched registration between the Republican and Democratic parties several times in the past decade, records show.

Allen, 38, said he plans to raise large sums in the primary. But he spent less than $5,000 in his 1988 race and $28,221 in 1986, according to election reports. He said he rented a house and registered to vote in Altadena in recent years with an eye on running for Congress there.

Barry L. Hatch, an Alhambra teacher, and Louis Morelli, a Glendale attorney and anti-tax advocate, are Moorhead’s other Republican opponents. Morelli said he has raised no money.

“My point is one of simply trying to get the message to some of the people in the area that Congress should be more responsive to them,” Morelli said. “Basically, I don’t like politics, and I don’t like politicians. . . . I don’t really expect to win.”

On the Democratic side, the 27th District candidates are Doug Kahn, who owns a typesetting business in Altadena, and John Grula, a Pasadena research scientist. Grula has raised $3,800, spent $1,736 and has $2,163 on hand. Kahn, who has been active in Democratic politics in the Pasadena area, said he has raised $2,000 and loaned his campaign another $2,000.

In the 26th District, Bill Glass, a Sherman Oaks accountant, and Gary Forsch, a Sun Valley businessman, are opposing each other for the chance to challenge Berman in his northeast valley district in November.

Glass, 66, who has never run before, said he has raised little more than the $2,000 that he has loaned his campaign. Forsch lost the GOP primary in the current 26th District in 1990.

In the 29th District, which is based in the Westside but spills over into the Hollywood Hills in the south Valley, Waxman is opposed in the Democratic primary by Scott M. Gaulke of Studio City. Gaulke is an associate of perennial extremist presidential candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., who is serving a prison term for mail fraud conspiracy.

Mark A. Robbins, a Los Angeles attorney, is unopposed in the Republican primary.

Robbins, 32, who has not sought office previously but has been active in GOP politics in recent years, has raised $8,407, spent $2,022 and has $6,385 remaining, according to his report. He provided $7,007 of the total to the campaign. He said he “would be extremely happy if I could raise $200,000.”

Miller reported from Washington and Quinn from Los Angeles.