THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:

Final tallies of campaign fundraising for 2007 show U.S. Rep. John Campbell is raking in the dough while Democratic challenger Steve Young is running his campaign on a shoestring budget, according to Federal Election Commission documents.

Young raised $26,670 last year, all from individual donors. Campbell amassed more than $570,614, including $186,000 from political action committees representing everything from the banking industry to beer wholesalers.

Young spent $27,685 last year, much of it on political ads, polling and those charming robotic phone calls everyone loves so much. Campbell’s camp spent $206,121 in operating expenses last year. Expenditures include thousands for catering and airfare, $1,900 for Christmas ornaments and $1,170 for wine.

CURRY REBUKES BERKELEY COUNCIL

Newport Beach City Councilman Keith Curry had cheers for local patriotism and jeers for Berkeley’s city council Tuesday.

Curry announced at the City Council meeting that fundraising was almost complete for a city-sponsored memorial for the First Batallion, First Marines, and scolded Newport’s neighbor to the north for its anti-Marine stance.

“I can’t think of more defined contrast of how the Marines are being treated in our city and how they are being treated in Berkeley,” the councilman said.

The Berkeley City Council Wednesday reversed an earlier decision to notify a Marine recruiting station that recruiters were no longer welcome in the city. The decision sparked heated protests in Berkeley and national outrage.

Newport Beach adopted the First Battalion, First Marines in 2003. The company is on its third deployment to Iraq since the city adoption.

The city plans to unveil a memorial statue dedicated to the battalion on Memorial Day in Castaways Park.

CAMPBELL STANDS BY BILL

Meanwhile, Campbell isn’t rescinding a bill that would cut nearly $2 million in earmarks to Berkeley, despite the city council’s reversal of a resolution that referred to a Marine Corps recruitment center in the city as “uninvited and unwelcome intruders.”

The original resolution encouraged “all people to avoid cooperation with the Marine Corps recruiting station,” and applauded those who “may volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the city of Berkeley.”

Campbell had earlier acknowledged the possibility of the council amending its position, but declined to state whether he would withhold the bill he hoped would send a message to the people and elected officials of Berkeley.

“Basically what we’re saying here is, ‘OK, if this is what you are going to do, don’t ask taxpayers from all over the country to subsidize you!’ ” Campbell said at the time.

Berkeley’s city council members reaffirmed at the meeting that they support American troops abroad and weren’t attempting to “ostracize” them, but instead sought to limit recruitment efforts on behalf of what they characterized as an “illegal” war.

While Campbell was nursing a lost voice and unavailable for comment, he did respond to questions via e-mail.

“It is absolutely ridiculous and inconsistent for the Berkeley City Council to say that somehow they support our troops in the military, while simultaneously opposing the efforts of those who want to join that very same military,” he said. “They are trying to salvage some rhetorical middle ground, and it just does not work.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher also ripped Berkeley.

“As the son of a Marine, I think what Berkeley has done is another example of the dimwitted, leftist mind-set that seems to germinate in the Berkeley environment,” he said via e-mail. “And the next time the country is in danger and the lives of millions of people are at stake, maybe we can call on the Berkeley City Council to defend us.”

Attempts to contact Berkeley City Council members were unsuccessful.

STATE GOP FACES MASSIVE DEBT

The Orange County Republican Party may be auctioning off a “ROMNY08” license plate on eBay this week, accessible through this site, but Wednesday’s $56 high bid won’t go far in alleviating the state party’s $3-million debt.

The problem got even worse this week when Larry Dodge, American Sterling Co.’s chief executive, wrote a letter to party Chairman Ron Nehring suggesting he may withhold a promised $3-million check the party had counted on to balance its books.

The letter, obtained by the Associated Press, criticizes Nehring as ineffectual and identifies a number of perceived shortfalls with the party.

“The registration gap [with Democrats] is widening, contributions are drying up, key posts have been left open for a year,” he said. “Immediate comprehensive action is required — the stakes are too high, the problems too deep, to do otherwise.”

Republican presidential candidates alone raked in about $1 million in the Newport-Mesa area, prompting one prominent Newport donor to express confidence the party would recover.

“We just had a tough campaign season, and there was lots of money going through here,” Inland Energy Company President Buck Johns said. “Just like any business, you have to balance the inflow and the outflow.”

“It’s a good lesson for the state party and a good lesson for Ron [Nehring],” he added. “I don’t perceive any problems in alleviating the debt.”

Johns stopped short of offering $3 million to the party himself.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected]. CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at [email protected].