With funding info in, some council candidates pay their own way With funding info in, some council candidates pay their own way (October 11, 2002)

By Candice Shih

Preliminary campaign statements are in, and among the biggest donors in Mountain View's city council race are the candidates themselves.

Laura Brown tops the list of 13 candidates with a pot of $14,686; $8,500 came from her husband, Robert Brown. Greg Perry is funding his campaign with $5,000 of his own money.

With the exception of incumbent Mike Kasperzak and two candidates who are not fundraising, Chris Kuszmaul and Tim Devitt, all of the candidates are using some of their own -- or their family members' -- cash, although sums range from $300 to $8,500.

"I don't believe that candidates should be able to pay their way on to council," said Kasperzak, adding that he is spending more money during this, his third election, than he did in 1996 and 1998. Despite his greater name recognition now, he is having to defend himself against critics who are advocating change on the council.

Six city council candidates have raised more than $10,000 for their campaigns. Another, Bruce Karney, has raised in excess of $9,000. Kuszmaul and Devitt pledged not to raise over $1,000, and did not need to submit the same disclosure forms.

Brown, a candidate for the four-year term, has spent $9,050, the most of any candidate. Of her expenses, $5,103 went toward a campaign consultant. She is the only candidate to have hired a consultant, although Matt Neely spent money for precinct data.

Others who raised more than $10,000 were Liz Boewer-Ambra, Bob Weaver, Kasperzak and Nick Galiotto. With funds he raised during the first half of the year, Neely has raised a total of over $10,000. Kasperzak raised the second highest amount: $11,358.

Of the remaining candidates, Pat Figueroa has raised $6,629, Perry $5,736, Rosiland Bivings $3,130, and Tom Frankum $2,955.

Bivings, a city council candidate in 1992, said she has raised about half of the money she spent in her first race. "Having a lot of candidates has been a kind of detriment," she said. "It's kind of like, who gets to [the donors] first?"

Candidates have also differed in the types of contributions they are receiving. Donations under $100 do not have to be listed on the disclosure forms. Boewer-Ambra raised $7,523 in donations under $100. Weaver, Galiotto, Brown and Kasperzak also raised over $5,000 in those contributions.

The highest single donation was $4000 given from Lauri Dinetz of Zephyr Cove, Nev. to her brother Matt Neely. He also received two $500 donations from Debbie Villa of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce where he is on the board of directors and from the Mike Honda for Congress Campaign.

Kasperzak also received two $500 donations, one each from Stephen Gazzera, an attorney (and former owner of the Silicon Valley landmark the Wagon Wheel), and the Tri-County Apartment Association, a landlord advocacy group. Weaver and Frankum received the same donation from Tri-County.

Frankum got $500 from Debbie Schulz, president of Minton's Lumber. And Rosiland Bivings received $500 each from Henry Gee, a downtown realtor, and his daughter Nancy Gee, an attorney. Lastly, Figueroa was aided by former school board member Gail Urban Moore with $500.

Figueroa, who has run four winning campaigns for Mountain View city council in the past, said this campaign is not unlike the previous ones in terms of fundraising.

Despite the disparities between the 11 fundraising campaigns, she said, "I don't think you can put the amount you have and translate it into the number of votes you expect to get."
E-mail Candice Shih at cshih@mv-voice.com