GOP Backers Fuel Governor’s Record Fund-Raising Blitz

Gov. Gray Davis heavily tapped business interests, including insurance, oil and agriculture, that are traditionally the financial backbone of Republican politics as he raised a record $6.3 million since January, reports released Wednesday show.

The bulk of his contributions came from a relatively small number of corporations, wealthy executives and trade groups.

Many of the business groups making generous donations have a big stake in issues pending before the Legislature and governmental agencies--particularly utility interests, whose future profits depend on the outcome of decisions relating to electricity deregulation and the renewal of cable franchises.

Pacific Telesis Corp. gave the governor $110,000, GTE Service Corp. $75,000, PG&E; Corp. $62,000 and Edison International $55,000.

Davis’ biggest contributor was A. Jerrold Perenchio, majority owner of Univision, the nation’s largest Spanish-language television network, with a $250,000 donation.

Two other large contributors were recent appointees to the University of California Board of Regents: John J. Moores, chairman of the San Diego Padres baseball team, and Judith Hopkinson’s Ameriquest Capital Corp. each donated $100,000 to the Democratic governor. Hopkinson is the mortgage loan company’s chief operating officer.

The details of Davis’ fund-raising blitz were fleshed out in a 240-page report that he was required by law to file with the secretary of state disclosing all political contributions collected from Jan. 1 through June 30.

The report had to be postmarked by midnight Monday; it was released by the secretary of state’s office Wednesday.

On Monday, Davis’ campaign manager, Garry South, disclosed that $6.3 million was the total the governor would report--a tally that exceeded by millions of dollars any sums raised by previous governors in their first year. Davis’ predecessor, Republican Pete Wilson, reported raising $1.2 million in his initial six months.

Ironically, once in office Davis sought contributions from many of the business entities that were the strongest supporters of Wilson and of Davis’ Republican opponent last year, Dan Lungren.

Companies such as Amoco, Chevron, Arco and groups such as the Agriculture Council of California, the Farm Bureau and the Assn. of California Insurance Companies PAC gave lavishly to the state’s highest Democratic officeholder.

“I think it’s fair to say those interest groups are trying to buy protection from a Democratic-controlled Legislature,” said Richie Ross, a Democratic political consultant. “It’s up to the governor to determine whether or not that protection is purchasable.”

On many issues, Davis collected money from each of the warring sides, a phenomenon that Ross said may account for “why he’s governing in the middle.”

Harvey Rosenfield, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, which lobbies against business interests on many issues, said Davis is one of the few politicians who has been able to garner financial support from different sides of controversies.

Wilson got little if any support from trial lawyers because he sided strongly with their chief opponents, insurance interests. Davis has collected heavily from both groups.

“Gray Davis has developed the pingpong model of fund-raising, bouncing back and forth between various interest groups who are able to ante up donations,” said Rosenfield. “The result is he ends up at the net.”

But Davis’ report showed that the governor continued to accept large sums from traditional Democratic contributors. However, the labor interests and trial lawyers who had dominated his fund-raising before the election accounted for only a small part of it after his November victory.

Hollywood and media moguls who have always been strong supporters of the longtime officeholder poured hundreds of thousands of dollars more into his political treasury.

Among them are Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen of the film studio DreamWorks, who gave $25,000 each, and Saban Entertainment Inc., producer of the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” with $125,000--the governor’s third largest donation. The Fox entertainment group gave the second-largest amount: $150,000.

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said Wednesday’s filing may be the last that Davis submits purely on paper.

Next year a new law will take effect requiring campaign disclosure reports to be filed on the Internet as well as on paper in the secretary of state’s office.

Under the current system, she said, any voter who wants to see who’s donating to officeholders can only get that information in the secretary of state’s office in Sacramento. With the new law, she said, they will be able to retrieve it from the Internet.