Find Out Who is Donating to the City Council Candidates

With the San Juan Capistrano City Council candidates broken down into an old guard and a new guard, the old guard is clearly receiving more financial help, according to financial statements on file with the city clerk.

Two seats are up for grabs in the Nov. 6 election. Although City Councilwoman Laura Freese has chosen not to run for re-election, she has thrown her financial support behind Planning Commissioner Ginny Kerr, who with incumbent Sam Allevato, represents the current majority on the City Council.

Challengers Kim McCarthy and former mayor Roy Byrnes have teamed up and hope to join Councilman Derek Reeve, often on the losing end of 4-1 votes, to form a majority. Tom Marantz also positions himself has an outsider who wants to shake things up.

Between Allevato and Kerr, they have raised nearly $33,000 in donations {Kerr also lent herself another $2,500). Because Allevato had leftover money in his war chest from previous elections, he has the most cash on hand after recent expenditures, with $6,800 not yet spent.

Byrnes follows with $2,699 cash on hand.

Marantz did not submit any records of financial donations or expenditures. The statements were due to the city last week.

"My campaign expenditures have been well under the $1,000 threshold that triggers reporting," said Marantz, who does have signs about town. "The signs cost me about $400. I put them up myself and with the help of volunteers."

Allevato and Kerr have many of the same donors, including several in the building industry, Rancho Mission Viejo and the equestrian community.

Both Byrnes and McCarthy have received assistance from Jim Reardon who’s previously run for City Council and is now running for a seat on the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees. Reardon and McCarthy are both on the editorial board of the Capistrano Common Sense newsletter.

Please see the individual stories for more details, including PDFs of the actual filings:

• Sam Allevato 
• Ginny Kerr 
• Roy Byrnes
• Kim McCarthy