Money continues to pour in

Dave Brooks

More than $100,000 has been spent in an effort to get Keith Bohr

elected to the City Council, half of which has come from his own

pocket, financial filings with the City Clerk’s office show.

Bohr called the figure “absolutely crazy, mind-boggling,” but said

he doesn’t want a repeat of the 2002 election.

“I came up short by 200 votes last time,” he said. “I’m

emphatically trying to nail it down.”

Bohr has been successful at fundraising, edging out incumbent

Debbie Cook with 126 general donations worth about $24,400. General

donations go directly to a candidate’s campaign and cannot exceed

$300. Soft money donations have no limit.

Bohr’s knack for fundraising has left him with a bank balance of

about $18,000, even after massive spending; besides Don Hansen and

Cook, no other candidate has even spent that much on their entire

campaign.

“The good news is that I’m able to raise a lot of money and spend

a lot of my own money,” Bohr said. “That should be looked at

positively.”

About 58% percent of Bohr’s general donations came from outside of

Huntington Beach, and at least 26% were from individuals and

businesses involved in real estate and finance.

Bohr and other candidates also have received support from local

labor unions and political action committees through soft money --

donations that aren’t contributed directly to a campaign, but spent

independently on election material to help candidates get elected.

“I have no idea what those folks do besides what I read in the

paper,” he said.

The Huntington Beach Police Officer’s Assn., which will begin

negotiating its 2005 contracts with the City Council after the Nov 2,

election, has already spent about $11,000 on Bohr, and activist group

Huntington Beach Tomorrow has spent about $7,000 on mailers for Bohr

and fellow council candidate Steve Ray.

Candidate John Earl said the donations are problematic, calling it

“legal bribery.” The Green Party candidate hasn’t raised any money

for his campaign.

The donations “make it pretty hard for a candidate to have the

ability to restore credibility to the council,” he said. “It creates

a bias for people with lots of money.”

Bohr also got a late $4,100 boost from a group calling itself the

California Real Estate Political Action Committee. The group made

similar expenditures for candidates Hansen and Joe Carchio.

Cook has the second largest war chest, with about $7,408. As of

Wednesday, there had been no soft money donations to her campaign and

she had not spent any of her own money.

Her financial filings show that she has raised about $24,100 in

general contributions, with only about 26% coming from out of town.

“I think it’s been very positive that so many people in Huntington

Beach have been willing to support Debbie Cook,” said her campaign

treasurer, Randy Fuhrman.

Many of those donations have been below $100, Fuhrman said,

indicative of the grass-roots nature of her campaign.

“It’s very telling of the respect she has in the community,” he

said.

Hansen brought in about $16,168 in general donations, half of

which came from outside of Huntington Beach. At least 27% of that

money came from individuals involved in real estate or finance. He

also plans to spend about $10,200 out of his own pocket.

Carchio comes in right behind Hansen, raising about $15,500 with

79% of that money coming from Huntington Beach residents. The

Apartment Assn. of Orange County also agreed to spend $5,000 on

mailers for Carchio and Hansen.

Coming in next is Jim Moreno, who has raised about $8,381 and

spent $5,600 of his own money. He is followed by Steve Ray, who has

raised $6,500 and loaned himself another $6,400.

Peter Albini came in second to last in the 2002 election and he

has come in second to last in fundraising this time around. As of

Wednesday, he had raised about $1,768, but only brought in $40 since

Oct. 1, and that was a donation from himself. His wife also let him

borrow $2,200 to cover the cost of getting his name on the sample

ballot.

Joey Racano has raised the least amount of money, bringing in only

$400, most of which he spent on “food, gas and dry cleaning.” His

campaign records show he maintains a balance of only 25 cents.

* DAVE BROOKS covers City Hall. He can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at dave.brooks@latimes.com.