Romney Outspent MacDonald in Primary : Race for Funds Is On in Contest for 5th District

San Diego County supervisor candidate Clyde Romney has raised three times as much money as his November opponent, Oceanside Councilman John MacDonald, campaign finance reports show.

That spending gap, however, creates a distorted picture of the current relative financial positions of the two finalists in the 5th District contest for the seat now held by Supervisor Paul Eckert.

Most of the more than $78,000 that Romney has raised to date was spent in the June primary, meaning that he, like MacDonald, began the November runoff campaign with little money in the bank. In addition, MacDonald’s campaign aides said Thursday that MacDonald’s first-place finish in the June 3 primary has bolstered fund-raising efforts. They predicted that the two candidates’ contribution totals will be much closer this fall than last spring.

“The response since the primary has been very encouraging,” said Alfred Lafleur, MacDonald’s campaign treasurer. “There’s been a definite increase in the tempo of the contributions.”

As evidence of the upturn in MacDonald’s fund-raising efforts, Lafleur estimated that MacDonald raised nearly $12,000 in July--more than one-third as much as he had received during the previous six months.

The finance reports, filed Thursday with the county voter registrar’s office, show that, as of June 30, Romney had received contributions totaling $78,482.87 and had spent $96,589.05. The difference was covered by a $22,000 loan that Romney, an Escondido lawyer, made to his campaign, $15,000 of that coming in the final week of the primary.

In contrast, MacDonald had received contributions or pledges totaling $26,675.02 and had spent $31,131.82 as of June 30, according to the reports. MacDonald lent $7,021.97 to his campaign.

“The (contribution) total is pretty modest, but that’s beginning to change,” Lafleur said, alluding to MacDonald’s stunning upset victory in the June primary. “My amateur, layman’s judgment is that now that the primary’s behind us, and now that there are no longer seven candidates but two, people are beginning to choose up sides. That’s going to be reflected in an increase in giving.”

By finishing at the top on June 3, MacDonald and Romney cut short Eckert’s quest for a third term in the 5th District, which sprawls from Encinitas to Orange County on the coast and inland to Borrego Springs and the Imperial County line. MacDonald led the seven-candidate field with 23,261 votes (26.6%), followed by Romney with 20,679 votes (23.6%). Eckert was third with 19,040 votes (21.7%).

Although Eckert’s most recent finance report was not available Thursday, previous campaign statements make it clear that the incumbent heavily outspent his major challengers. As of May 18, Eckert had raised $139,943--more than the combined totals of Romney and MacDonald.

Romney’s campaign treasurer, Lester Lohmann, said Thursday that Romney’s contribution total, unlike MacDonald’s, “has not changed dramatically” since the June 30 cutoff date included in the finance reports disclosed Thursday.

Noting that “summer is a tough time to do fund raising,” Bill Chaddock, Romney’s campaign manager, said that the Romney camp concentrating instead on laying the groundwork for contribution drives which will begin next month. Chaddock also concurred with Lafleur’s prediction that the two candidates’ spending will be more evenly balanced in the runoff.

“We certainly don’t expect to outraise John 3-to-1 this fall,” Chaddock said. “We’re preparing a budget based on spending roughly as much in the runoff as we did in the primary. But we don’t expect John to run another $30,000 campaign in the runoff.”

Chaddock added that Romney “instantly embraced” MacDonald’s recent proposal that the two candidates spend no more than $132,000 each in the runoff, a ceiling based on a cost of about $1 per household in the district. MacDonald, however, has not yet agreed to a campaign contribution limit suggested by Romney under which neither candidate would accept more than $1,000 in cumulative donations from any single company, Chaddock said. Even if MacDonald does not follow that guideline, Romney intends to adhere to it in the runoff, his campaign manager added.

An analysis of campaign documents show that both MacDonald and Romney have relied heavily on retirees and businessmen for contributions.

Romney, the former chief aide to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), received $11,980, or about 16% of his total contributions, from retirees, with the individual donors ranging from mobile home dwellers on fixed incomes to retired executives living in exclusive North County communities. Businessmen comprised the second-largest category of donors to Romney’s campaign, giving him $8,247 (11%).

Meanwhile, MacDonald, former president of MiraCosta Community College, received $4,900, or about 19% of his donations, from businessmen, and $4,000 (15%) from retirees.

The precise percentage of contributions attributable to retirees and businessmen actually could be higher for both candidates, because both Romney and MacDonald received some donations under $100 each that were not itemized by occupation.

Despite being endorsed by the Building Industry Assn., Romney collected a smaller share of his contributions from development and real estate interests than MacDonald. The reports show that about 8.4% of Romney’s donations came from developers, contractors, real estate agents and others involved in the development business, while MacDonald derived nearly 15% of his contributions from those sources.