Candidate will deduct mailer expense Candidate will deduct mailer expense (October 08, 2004)

Abe-Koga will have less to spend on city campaign

By Jon Wiener

Margaret Abe-Koga will count the expense of a political mailer toward the voluntary spending limit, the city council candidate told the Voice on Friday. The mailer, entitled "An Education Status Report," was originally paid for by the campaign account Abe-Koga used to win election to the County Board of Education in 2002. Abe-Koga sent it only to homes in the Mountain View-Whisman School District, despite representing a much larger area that includes all or parts of Palo Alto, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.

The timing of the campaign piece -- it appeared in mailboxes around the same time Abe-Koga formalized her city council candidacy -- raised suspicions that the mailer was really a part of her council campaign.

Abe-Koga maintains that the mailer had nothing to do with her council campaign, and that she had good reasons for both its timing and distribution. But she called her decision to count the expense against the voluntary spending limit a "good faith effort" to demonstrate her desire to adhere to the letter and spirit of city campaign law.

Abe-Koga said she spent about $2,700 on printing and postage for the mailing. The city council set the spending limit for this year's campaign at $16,882.

"I may not have even spent the $16,882 anyway," she said, "but I plan to deduct that amount from the cap."

Abe-Koga said she was surprised by criticism of the mailer. But Council member Greg Perry, who first raised it as an issue, defended his decision to do so in August, rather than waiting until the Oct. 5 filing deadline.

Perry said he wanted Abe-Koga to have time to respond to public pressure without having it scuttle her campaign.

"If I had waited until October, I felt like that would be trying to get maximum political pain out of it," said Perry.

He added that Abe-Koga's decision to count the expense toward the voluntary spending limit "was an entirely appropriate change."

"It sounds like she's trying to do the right thing this time," he said.

Both Abe-Koga and Perry said they anticipate no problems working together if she is elected to council.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com.

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