CALIFORNIANS BIG CAMPAIGN DONORS.

Byline: Associated Press 

Nearly one-quarter of the country's 400 largest political contributors are Californians, even though the state accounts for about 12 percent of the nation's population and capital.

Ninety Californians gave big bucks to national political parties as well as presidential and congressional candidates during 1995 and 1996, according to a report by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The results were published last Thursday in Mother Jones magazine.

The Center for Responsive Politics, based in Washington, compiled the list by totaling all federal dollars donated by individuals in 1995 and 1996. The figures include direct campaign contributions, political action committee donations and ``soft money'' that is given to political parties.

Although individuals are currently prohibited from donating more than $1,000 per election cycle to presidential and congressional candidates, they can contribute virtually unlimited sums to the parties - the funds that are often referred to as ``soft money.''

The Californians who made the Top 400 run the gamut from businesspeople to football team owners to socialites. The amounts donated range from the $334,350 donated by San Francisco real estate magnate Walter Shorenstein to an $85,600 contribution from Kenneth Rainin of Emeryville, who owns a laboratory implements manufacturing company.

Shorenstein gives to Democrats, Rainin to Republicans. But many on the list give to both parties, otherwise known as ``hedging your bets.''

``We see a strong correlation between who gives a lot to policymakers and who ends up getting a lot from policymakers,'' said Paul Hendrie, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Washington-based research group that compiled the figures for the top 400 donors. ``People who give a lot have a disproportionate advantage over ordinary people.''

In a memo last year, former White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes made it clear how important ``major donors'' are to the political process.

``Since 1 January 1996,'' Ickes wrote on Nov. 26 of last year, ``$116.2 million has been actually deposited (by the Democratic National Committee), of which some $25 million is from direct mail and $91.2 million is from major donors.''

Hendrie thinks that buys political clout.

``When a group of people is giving such large sums of money, it almost defies common sense to think that they're giving it altruistically,'' Hendrie said. ``Most of the people who are giving these sums are businesspeople, and they tend to spend their money in a logical way: They expect to get back something in return. It's the way capitalism works.''

But donors put it another way.

Howard Leach, a businessman and University of California regent who is a major money man for Republicans and is No. 59 on the top 400 list, said he gave more than $200,000 because ``we support the people we think have the right values. We don't want anything but a continuation of opportunity.''

Democrat Shorenstein, who donated almost $350,000, said, ``This is a privilege we have in this democracy, to give to those who support our point of view, in order to level the playing field. I don't feel that I'm buying anything. There's nothing I need.''