Politics & Government

City Council Election Spending Tops $80K

Two candidates, Sam Allevato and Ginny Kerr, are responsible for the bulk of that.

The candidates for San Juan Capistrano have raised $38,268 and spent $42,112 just in the first 20 days of October alone.

This brings the total raised for the year to date to $84,854 on behalf of four of the five candidates. Tom Marantz has not raised more than $1,000, so he did not submit detailed financial statements to the city.

Total expenditures for the four candidates reporting total $77,827.

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But wait, there’s more.

A political action committee known as Citizens for Sensible Development spent $2,514 of money it already had sitting around to put out a mailer opposing candidate Ginny Kerr and incumbent Sam Allevato.

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The group was active in opposing the changes proposed for the Distrito-La Novia/Meadows project, but one of the group’s early leaders says he hasn’t been involved with the group’s new direction.

Kerr and Allevato are responsible for the lion’s share of fundraising – and fund-spending – in this year’s election for two seats. Here’s how it breaks down:

Sam Allevato

Allevato raised $18,472 between Oct. 1-20. The donors are mostly real estate professionals, developers, homemakers, car dealers and golf pros. He received $100 from an employee of Faubel Public Affairs, which hired away former Capistrano Dispatch Editor Jonathan Volzke and is representing San Diego Gas & Electric, among others.

Allevato has spent $18,782 in the last few weeks and has $11,374 in cash on hand for the remainder of the campaign.

Roy Byrnes

Byrnes added another $250 to his war chest between Oct. 1-20. All of his expenditures, for a total of $4,451, came during the first three weeks in October.

He has a cash balance of $2,949.

Ginny Kerr

Kerr raised another $18,146 from Oct. 1 to Oct. 20. Many of that comes from the same sources as Allevato’s donors (although no Faubel-related donor), including representatives of Rancho Mission Viejo and the Irvine Company.

She spent $17,665 in those same weeks, bringing her total on the year to $33,609, with $6,325 of that in unpaid bills. Most of the expenditures were for mailers and campaign consultants.

Kim McCarthy

McCarthy raised an additional $1,400 in this latest reporting period, bringing her total to $5,400 for the year, including a $1,200 loan. Her paperwork once again has another mathematical error. This time it shows her donations adding to $4,400, when it should be $5,400.

She has spent $1,214 in the first three weeks in October, bringing her total to $4,507 on the year.


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