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Uploaded: Thursday, November 1, 2012, 1:02 PM
Inks, Clark are top spenders in council race
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by Andrea Gemmet
Mountain View Voice Staff
Developers, unions and advocacy groups are making their presence felt in the latest round of campaign contributions in the City Council race.
According to the latest campaign finance reports, covering Oct. 1 through Oct. 20, Chris Clark is leading in fund-raising and spending so far, amassing a war chest that's just under the city's voluntary campaign expenditure limit of $21,388. Candidates who stay under the limit are reimbursed by the city for over $2,000 in fees.
Incumbent John Inks, who has spent over $16,000 so far, is in second place behind Clark, the top spender at slightly over $18,000.
Of the six candidates running for four seats on the council, Clark and incumbent Mike Kasperzak both reported contributions from Assemblyman Jerry Hill, who is running for state Senate against Mountain View resident Sally Lieber.
John McAlister reported the largest single cash donation, $2,000 from the Mountain View firefighters' union. Margaret Capriles netted the second-biggest amount in union contributions, for a total of $850 raised this period from construction-industry trades.
John McAlister
McAlister reported contributions this period of $6,094, made up of cash, loans and nonmonetary donations, bringing his total to $16,105. Besides the $2,000 from the Mountain View Professional Firefighters, his largest cash contributors were: $300 from the San Jose-based electrical workers' union, IBEW; $250 from Los Altos Hills resident Dick Henning, the founder of Celebrity Forums; and $120 from Realtor Roger Kao.
His campaign also logged a nonmonetary contribution worth $924 in sign stands from builder Don Bahl. McAlister loaned his campaign $2,000 this period, bringing the total loans he's made to $11,238.
He reported spending $4,834 this period, including $4,241 to Pacific Printing and $418 to Pony Express for campaign literature.
His campaign reported spending a total of $14,537 so far and has a cash balance of $1,212.
Chris Clark
Clark reported contributions of $1,193 this period, bringing his total to $21,172. He reported four donors with contributions of over $100: the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association, $300; the California League of Conservation Voters, $250; PG&E Corp., $200; and $150 from Assemblyman Jerry Hill.
He reported spending $12,375, including $6,955 to Pacific Printing for campaign literature; $1,487 for newspaper ads; $2,550 for postage paid to Pacific Printing; $460 to FedEx for campaign paraphernalia and $346 to Political Data in Burbank.
Clark's campaign has spent $18,047 to date, and has a cash balance of $3,125.
Mike Kasperzak
Kasperzak reported contributions of $1,574 this period, bringing his campaign's total to $15,422. He received five contributions of $250 each. They were from: Scott Ward, of Palo Alto-based developer Classic Communities; the Santa Clara League of Conservation Voters; Recology Inc., the city's garbage collection vendor; Claudia Coleman, a community volunteer who lives in Los Altos; and Eric J. Morley of Los Gatos-based Morley Bros. real estate investment company. Assemblyman Jerry Hill donated $150.
The campaign's biggest expenditure this period was for ads in the Voice, for $1,394. Kasperzak's campaign has spent a reported $9,621 to date, and has a cash balance of $7,346.
Margaret Capriles
Capriles reported raising $2,299 this filing period, bringing her to a total of $13,706. Besides loaning her campaign $1,200, her biggest contributors were the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association with $300; the San Jose-based IBEW Education Fund, $300; and the Northern California Carpenters Council, $250.
Capriles reported spending $3,662 this period, bringing her campaign's total expenditures to $12,425. Her two expenditures were for $2,742 for postage and $914 for an ad in the Voice. Her campaign has spent a total of $12,425 to date, and she has $1,281 remaining, according to the report.
John Inks
Inks' campaign raised $808 this period, bringing the total to date up to $12,007. Only two contributions of more than $100 were received: $250 from Palo Alto real estate developer Scott Ward of Mozart Development; and $250 from DJ Bahl of Mountain View, a general partner in Hagios Pneuma.
The campaign's biggest expenditures this period were $4,212 for postage, $3,026 to Express Printing and Graphics for a postcard mailer, and $1,440 for ads in the Voice. The campaign reported spending a total of $16,253 to date, and has a cash balance of $3,992.
Jim Neal
Neal reported raising $1,050 in contributions this period, the bulk of which came from an $800 contribution he made himself. The remainder came from a $250 donation from Rob and Jackie Graham of the Sports Page in Mountain View. His campaign's total contributions to date are $2,725.
His campaign's biggest expenditures this period were for print ads, with a payment of $346 to the Old Mountain View Neighborhood Association and $275 to the Monta Loma Neighborhood Association. His total expenditures to date are $2,233 and his campaign has a cash balance of $492.Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Voter, a resident of the Castro City neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2012 at 2:57 pm Jim Neal lost the election when he posted that picture of himself on his campaign signs. Not knowing the man as an individual (he may be the greatest guy since Superman) the picture makes him look like a bit of a kook.
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Posted by @voter, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2012 at 3:55 pm @voter,
I'm glad to see you use sound judgement in your decision on who wins the election. NOT!!
How about you try to look into what someone says and does rather then basing your opinion on looks.
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Posted by Don, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2012 at 4:22 pm How much did Prometheus builders contribute to Mike Kasperzak's campaign?
He is a real favorite of real estate developers, with $250 from one builder and one real estate investor. Let's see what kind of giant eyesores like the Prometheus projects go up in the next few years from Classic Communities and the Morley Bros. That's a cheap buy for companies that stand to reap millions of dollars of profit.
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Posted by Voter, a resident of the Castro City neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2012 at 5:00 pm @@voter, Stand down. Where did I say who _I_ was voting for. Look at my post again, I'll wait.................................................
Yes, as you can see I never did say I would or would not for any candidate. I simply predicted defeat of one candidate and gave the reason why. My prediction was based on an understanding of how importance appearance can be in an election. Not that it should be that way, but realistically it is that way. I will base my vote on many things, not appearance, but unfortunately for looks matter. The people who heard Nixon debate Kennedy on the radio thought Nixon won. Those who watched it on TV thought Kennedy won. Neal made a bad call by putting that pick on all his signs. You can have the best ideas in the world, but if you botch a campaign you will still lose the election.
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Posted by Rob, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2012 at 5:02 pm I'm curious to see if Inks get re-elected.
I'm sure most people have forgotten how he received his "free" flight from Google on a fighter plane. It's something that is very unique and should have been offered to a resident of Mountain View through a lottery. Instead, Inks helped himself; I guess I shouldn't be shocked.
How can Inks adequately represent the interest of the ordinary Mt View citizen when deciding how much more the city should give Google? How can Inks be objective with respect to Google?
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Posted by Konrad M. Sosnow, a resident of another community, on Nov 1, 2012 at 7:52 pm Mike Kasperzak has been, and continues to be, a puppet of the developers. He doesn't care what happens to the residents of Mountain View.
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Posted by GSB, a resident of the Rex Manor neighborhood, on Nov 2, 2012 at 12:11 am @Rob,
Get over it.
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Posted by Jim Neal, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Nov 2, 2012 at 1:31 am Voter, I am not sure why dressing in western garb makes me look like a kook, but if that is the opinion of most of the people of Mountain View, the so be it. I dress that way every day and I'm not about to change. As I said in the OMVNA forum at the Library, "If I'm willing to sell out and change who I am just to get elected, I'll sure as heck sell you out!".
Changing my appearance won't change who I am or what I stand for. Part of what I am fighting for is to have a more informed electorate and make sure that people in this city know what's going on and how the council's decisions will affect their lives.
I don't have a pressing need to be on the City Council and I am not so desperate as to be willing to do anything. If I lose, my life will go on. I don't make my living from the Government. I am running to make a difference and just maybe the difference will be that people will start to look past their prejudices and start judging people based on what they say and do, and not on looks. If City Council is nothing more than a beauty contest, then I would never get elected anyway. But if it's about energy and ideas, then I would argue that I am far better qualified than anyone else.
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Posted by Rob, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Nov 2, 2012 at 10:42 am @GSB
Glad you are listening ;-)
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Posted by @voter, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Nov 2, 2012 at 12:01 pm "@@voter, Stand down. Where did I say who _I_ was voting for. Look at my post again, I'll wait................................................."
Look closely to what i said, i did not say "you" were voting for anyone.
Cheers, now you stand down.
So going by your theory, then you would conclude Mitt will win over Barck.
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Posted by John, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Nov 4, 2012 at 4:20 pm It's sad but the developers minions will be reelected, zoning will be changed for higher density and the destruction of Mountain View will continue.
Still don't know why the city politicians are so concerned about affordable housing unless of course the big developers make some money of it.
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Posted by Don, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Nov 5, 2012 at 2:47 pm I agree with you that the City Council status quo will most likely continue. They will continue to line their election campaign funds and who knows what else with developer $$. And irrational, rampant, ugly crowded "affordable" housing will continue to be built (at $3000+ a month, I'm not sure it qualifies for 98% of the folks)...Unless
Unless we continue to fight them every step of the way in City Council itself, so no more mistakes, slip ups, oversights and secret deals continue to be made at our expense. We've done our bit for democratizing housing access. Crowded housing for apartments adds nothing to the tax revenue, costs $$ for services, including SCHOOLS!!, and siphons the profit dollars out of town to builders and developers who live elsewhere.
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