Wal-Mart throws another $116,000 to campaign

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- With its most recent contribution, Wal-Mart has made

the campaign over its future here one of the most expensive in the city’s

history, City Councilman Tom Harman said.

The retailer pumped $116,500 last month into the war chest of a campaign

committee fighting to defeat an anti-Wal-Mart ballot initiative set for a

vote in March, according to public disclosure statements filed last week.

When combined with a previous contribution, Wal-Mart so far has forked

over roughly $225,000, outspending its opponents by more than 16 to 1,

documents show.

“It’s clearly the highest amount that I can recall in the 27 years I’ve

lived in the city,” said Harman, who opposes the project. “It’s obvious

they’re trying to buy the election.”

The campaign is aimed at Measure I, which proposes to change the zoning

on Talbert Avenue, by Beach Boulevard, where the retailer plans to open a

150,000-square-foot complex. Rezoning the site from commercial back to

residential could tank the project.

A large chunk of the campaign funds is being used to pay for public

relations and surveys, in addition to mass mailers and campaign signs,

documents show.

But money shouldn’t cloud the issue, said City Councilman Ralph Bauer,

who co-chairs Save Our Schools, the committee backing the retailer.

Wal-Mart is leasing the site, a closed school campus, from the Ocean View

School District, which plans to use the revenue generated by the

development to renovate district facilities.

“We can focus on what Wal-Mart spends, or we can focus on the kids,” he

said. “The issue is clear. We’re there to help kids.”

City Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff, who supports the project, said her

energy is spent working at a grass-roots level, going door to door and

distributing signs in neighborhoods.

But Connie Boardman, the treasurer of the anti-Wal-Mart campaign, says

the money is too “obscene” to ignore.

“I don’t see anything grass roots about this at all,” she said.