As some of you might know, I was a candidate for Ward 2 in the last municipal election. I was beaten like a red-headed stepchild by veteran incumbent of 12 years, and all-round nice guy, Frank Galgay. I ran my campaign on blood, sweat, tears, and about $300, almost all out-of-pocket. I did claim $850 in contributions, because with one week left in the campaign, CUPE told me they would give me $750, but it had to be spent on advertising. On the Saturday before the election, I had a ¼ page ad in The Telegram that cost me $753. This probably didn’t get me a whole bunch of votes, but I still thought it was real nice of CUPE.
As a person who spent a tiny amount of money on my campaign, I wondered about where all the money came from to buy all of those corrugated plastic signs which we all saw in September (many of which were illegally placed, but that’s another story).
The other thing I wondered was how much of an effect money had on the democratic process during the election.
Now that I have all of the information from the city, and spent several hours plugging it all into a spreadsheet to make it useable, I found several points interesting. Below are simply my own inferences, and I encourage you to take a look at the information on the campaign contributions, including who they came from, where they came from, and to whom they went…
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If the results of the election were determined solely by who received more campaign contributions, not votes, there would only be four changes to our current council: Gerry Colbert and Sandy Hickman (both of whom were incumbents) would not have made it in at councillor at large, but Simon Lono and Bernard Davis would have. Art Puddister would have beat Danny Breen in Ward 1. Shannie Duff would have been beaten by Keith Coombs.
There are several contributors who bet on two horses for the mayoral race. Fairview Investments, Brookfield Plains Inc, Newfoundland Design Associates, Kavanaugh & Associates, Olympic Construction, Pyramid Construction, and Cabot Development all made equal donations to Dennis O’Keefe and Ron Ellsworth.
I was surprised by the amount of contributors coming from outside of town. There were a large number of Real Estate/Construction companies from Mount Pearl/Paradise who donated to candidates in the St. John’s election. The donation coming from the furthest point was a $500 donation by Fort Management to Keith Coombs, all the way from the fourth biggest city in Newfoundland, Fort McMurray. Also interesting was Southwest Properties, of Halifax, who donated to O’Keefe, Duff, Coombs, Hann, and Breen during the campaign.
Dennis O’Keefe, Ron Ellsworth, Keith Coombs, and Bernard Davis all received donations from numbered companies… Mysterious! For example, 50014 Nfld Ltd donated $1000 to Dennis O’Keefe, and $500 to Bruce Tilley. The only address listed for them was a P.O. Box number in St. John’s. I have no idea what 50014 Nfld Ltd does, but I would like to find out.
All candidates combined claimed $303,098 in campaign contributions. The total of donations over $250 which were claimed was $181,545 (This is not totally correct; Ron Ellsworth and David Ryan claimed some donations less then $250. Kudos to them for erring on the side of transparency). This means that $121,553 was made in anonymous donations less than $250.
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Anyways folks, if you happen to have a few extra moments, or are so compelled, I suggest you take a look at the full listing of the campaign contributions for the 2009 municipal election. The information contained in the spreadsheet was taken, by yours truly, from the photocopied original Candidate Contributions and Expenses Disclosure Forms. If you question my numbers (as you should), you can get your own set of the forms by calling the city clerk’s office at the city. The best part is they will mail them to you, and they are free! I did my best to transcribe the information exactly as written, which proved difficult sometimes, as several were handwritten.
Also, I want to send out props to Art Puddister who filled out his form, and attached list of contributors with a typewriter. Who needs a computer anyways?
Please feel free to continue the discussion on this information here at thescope.ca.
Click here to download the spreadsheet and have a look for yourself.
March 16th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Rick Mercer gave Sheilagh O’Leary 500 bones!
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March 19th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Hey Harvey! You said “almost” all of your campaign funds came from your own pocket.
You got any other donations you’re willing to disclose?
I’m just curious, honest!
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March 20th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Absolutely, I don’t mind saying at all. I got $850 total in contributions, $750 from CUPE, and $100 in donations, none more than $20 from a fundraiser I had where I gave away Chickpea Curry and Pulled Pork in Bannerman Park. The rest was my own money.
One number I wondered about (which I point out above), is the amount which came from anonymous donors in increments less than $250. There was a lot of money for some candidates which counted as this, and I am just wondering how they did it. Did they have big fundraisers? People canvassing for them? I would love to know (so I can do so next time).
Hope people are reading this, learning something new, and enjoying it!
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March 21st, 2010 at 11:14 am
Fundraising dinners. They’re fairly easy to organize, require less man hours from your volunteers, and give a good return on your investment, as well as a good speaking opportunity and a chance to meet the media. For a relatively small operation (such as yours) even selling plates for $20 or so will be more than enough to pad your campaign with some cash.
One thing, though – you gotta plan WELL AHEAD.
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April 25th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Sad you lost the election, Andrew? Oh well, you still have that Fortis building to complain about!
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April 26th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Andrew E, I am glad you have taken an interest in my writing and I thank you for taking the time to read several of my articles.
I believe that the implication of your comment is that I am writing about campaign contributions because I lost the last election. I disagree. I ran in the last election because I care about this city, and would like to change it for the better. That is the same reason I have been to every council meeting since the middle of October (more than some councillors) and why I wrote this article. I do my best to inform people of what is going on in council and try to provoke debate on municipal issues.
Technology allows us to do amazing things to stay connected, and informed, such as the LiveBlog I do of Council Meetings every week live at http://www.twtter.com/thescopeNL. The internet also allows us to use this space to share opinions, debate issues that are important to us, and affect us on the municipal level. I thank the Scope for providing such an environment, and think that it is unfortunate and unproductive when people use the space to insult each other.
If you disagree with something I have said, I would love to hear your opinion. If you do not feel comfortable posting it online, please feel free to email me at andrew@thescope.ca.
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