Mayor's race: The price of victory

by Contributed - CASTANET Mar 19, 2012 / 4:40 pm
Money talks -- especially when you are in a tight race for the mayor's chair.  Financial figures released by both candidates show Mayor Walter Gray raised, and spent, nearly twice as much money as Sharon Shepherd in November's municipal election.  Gray won by 421 votes. The figures are part of financial statements all candidates are required to file. Candidates for mayor, council and school trustee had until 4 p.m. Monday to file their financial statements. Gray and Shepherd both filed their statements late last Friday afternoon. Figures show Gray raised $57,490 and spent $56,920 while Shepherd was able to generate $29,801 in contributions and spent $29,729.  They also show the candidates themselves were the biggest single contributors to their respective campaigns, however, the proportion of those contributions were vastly different. Gray contributed $13,600 (23.6%) of his own money toward his election campaign while Shepherd and her husband Mike spent $14,161 (47.5%).  Gray's political machine secured 96 donations of $100 or more. Aside from Gray himself, Sunlogics Inc. was the largest single contributor at $5,000. BFL Canada kicked in $2,500. There were six contributions of $1,000:

• Nick Frost, founder of FourChange.org, the 'grassroots' organization credited in some circles with affecting much of the change around the council table. Frost also owns Castanet.
• Pheasant & Quail Pub
• Al Stober
• Orchard Ford
• Imperial Parking
• Don Folk Chevrolet

Gray spent $27,982 on media advertising and $11,880 on signs, flyers etc. Shepherd meantime was able to secure just 30 donations of $100 or more and none of those was more than $500. The former mayor spent $19,000 on media advertising and $4,926 on signage. Ken Chung spent just $628 on his mayoralty campaign and raised only $198. All five candidates for mayor and all 14 school trustee candidates made the 4 p.m. Monday deadline for filing. At most, two council candidates did not meet the deadline. Candidates who did not file by 4 p.m. Monday forfeit their $100 deposit and are fined an additional $500. If they do not file within a month of the deadline they are placed on a list disqualifying them from running in the 2014 municipal election or any by-elections between now and then anywhere in the province.