GLENDALE RACES FUNDED EARLY MAYOR'S BANKROLL BULGES MONTHS BEFORE ELECTION.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

GLENDALE - With city elections still eight months away, Mayor Bob Yousefian already has raised $63,594 for his re-election campaign.

Councilman Frank Quintero raised $39,133 in contributions between Jan. 1 and June 30, while Councilman Dave Weaver collected $8,500, according to campaign finance reports.

Councilman Gus Gomez is running for a Superior Court judgeship in November, and his election could leave the council with four seats up for grabs.

``It's very early to be raising that kind of money for an April election,'' Councilman Rafi Manoukian said. ``It discourages people who are planning on running for the office by having funds that large available for a candidate.''

Quintero disagreed, saying that people who want to run for a council seat will not be swayed.

``I think in the political process, whoever is determined and interested is going to run,'' he said.

Early fund raising is becoming more and more common in politics, said Democratic consultant Rick Taylor.

``I think politics has changed in general. These days you have someone campaigning for state Assembly 1 1/2 years away from the election. I find it to be the way you do business in politics today,'' said Taylor of West Los Angeles-based Dakota Communications.

Also, the increasing cost of running campaigns drives the need to raise more money, Quintero and Yousefian said.

``Glendale is a large city - the third largest in Los Angeles County - and the days you can run a campaign on a shoestring budget are unfortunately over,'' said Yousefian, who expects to spend about $100,000 on his campaign.

Taylor agreed, saying times have changed since candidates in small cities could spend $17,000 on a campaign and win.

``I think in all small cities the amount of money spent now is 15 times what they used to spend just a handful of years ago,'' Taylor said. ``Today things have changed dramatically, and part of that change is the consultant factor - hiring people to run their campaigns, to have better-looking mail and all those things that go in(to) a modern-day political campaign.''

But Weaver, who held a fund-raiser in July, questioned the effect of contributions to Yousefian from as far as Nevada.

``In my opinion, there are more individuals and groups out there that are trying to gain influence on the council with their large donations,'' Weaver said. ``We're starting to see moneys come in from outside the community and more development money showing up from people who could potentially do business in the city of Glendale.''

Rafi Manoukian changed the face of Glendale politics and the amount of money required to run a campaign in this city, Yousefian said.

In 1999, Manoukian registered 4,000 Armenian voters - where there were 800 before - and successfully ran against 13 people for an open seat by spending nearly $100,000. In 2003, he received the largest number of votes in an election in Glendale's history.

``At this point, I wouldn't put any kind of weight on the amount of funds raised,'' said Manoukian, who always began raising funds in December. ``But, it certainly gives them a leg up on everybody else.''

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com