Council candidates won with less Council candidates won with less (February 11, 2005)

Mayfield developer not a factor

By Jon Wiener

For the second election in a row, the big spenders in Mountain View's city council race were not necessarily the big winners.

Tom Means and Laura Macias each won election to their first terms despite raising and spending thousands fewer than the other four candidates in the race.

The final campaign expense reports, filed in late January, showed that every candidate spent less than by the voluntary limit of $16,882. Means was the only candidate not to sign the pledge, but he ended up raising less than half as much as Macias, who had the next smallest bankroll.

"I may have been the cheapest vote-getter in the state," said Means.

Stephanie Schaaf, a young community activist who had not served on a city commission before, finished last despite outspending the competition. Schaaf jumped out to a fund-raising lead early on in the race on the strength of small donations from individuals.

"I'm really glad to see it didn't go in order of campaign finances," she said.

Though special interest money played a smaller role than in previous elections, development companies still filtered in thousands of dollars to the winning candidates.

In addition to Means and Macias, incumbents Matt Pear and Nick Galiotto were the beneficiaries of $500 donations from the Mountain View Housing Council, a Sunnyvale-based group that reported donations from several out-of-town development and property management firms. A realtors association from Los Altos donated $450 to Galiotto, and another from Los Angeles gave Pear the same amount.

Some of these same firms or their executives made separate donations to candidates. Altos Homes Corporation gave Pear $100. Tod Spieker of Palo Alto-based Spieker Co., which also donated to the housing council, sent an additional $200 to Galiotto and $250 each to Means and Pear.

But the one company that some believe stood the most to gain from the outcome was not a player in the election. HP's plan to sell the 27 acres at San Antonio Road and Central Expressway known as Mayfield to a housing developer has met with stiff neighborhood opposition. Only Schaaf publicly supported the sale, which requires the city to change the zoning. Appraisers have estimated the value of the property to be $70 million or more with the zoning change, although neither HP nor developer Toll Brothers contributed any money to the campaign.

Schaaf refused donations from corporations and lobbyists. She said returned an unsolicited check of $99 from Fremont-based developer Greenbriar. Galiotto, Macias, and Pear also received checks from Greenbriar for the same amount.
E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

Candidate Votes Amount raised Amount spent Matt Pear 15,293 $16,822 $12,814 Nick Galiotto 12,544 $14,959 $13,940 Laura Macias 11,244 $11,782 $11,129 Tom Means 11,092 $5,849 $5,850 Margaret Abe-Koga 10,987 $15,632 $12,672* Stephanie Schaaf 10,888 $16,561 $16,392 * Does not include $2,800 mailer sent while member of county board of education

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