Costa Mesa campaigns flush with out-of-town funding

Costa Mesa City Council campaigns have drawn attention across the country for their political implications, and they’ve also sucked in a significant amount of funding from outside the city.

Campaign finance reports showed that so far this year Mayor Allan Mansoor, the leading fundraiser of the six candidates, collected more than $26,000 from businesses and residents with addresses outside Costa Mesa. That was nearly 57% of the $46,883 he has raised this year.

The other five candidates for two open seats are Mirna Burciaga, Chris Bunyan, Bruce Garlich, Wendy Leece and Mike Scheafer. Leece and Mansoor are supporting each other as candidates who will stay the course of the current council majority, while Garlich and Scheafer are running as candidates who will turn the city in a more moderate direction.

Garlich has the second-biggest coffers. About $4,000 of his $26,338 — or a little more than 15% — came from businesses and individuals outside the city.

While most of Garlich’s money was given by residents and businesses in Costa Mesa, the biggest chunk — $10,000 — came from the Westside Group Political Action Committee, a group of business owners and residents with a Costa Mesa address.

Mansoor on Tuesday highlighted his support within Costa Mesa rather than explaining his campaign contributions from outside the city. According to Mansoor’s campaign, 20% of his money is from sources in the city, while 17% of Garlich’s contributions are from city residents.

“If you look at the percentages, I have a higher percentage of residents than Mr. Garlich that are actually supporting me,” Mansoor said.

Garlich argued he has more local support because he includes Costa Mesa businesses in his total.

But will voters care?

Garlich thinks so. “I would if I was a voter. I don’t like to think that people outside the city are trying to hijack our election for their own political purposes,” he said.

That’s a common concern. With the city at the forefront of the illegal immigration debate, some people expected to see both factions trying to influence Costa Mesa’s election.

Byron De Arakal, who runs a blog on Costa Mesa politics and is supporting Garlich and Scheafer, said he thinks the donations are telling.

The mayor and his supporters have attacked Garlich and Scheafer for taking money from “out-of-town industrialists,” with the implication that they can’t vote here, De Arakal said. Meanwhile, Mansoor has accepted contributions from people who may have “a vested interest in advancing their personal immigration agenda,” he said.

“It bothers me that a large part of his platform is predicated on chasing outsiders out of Costa Mesa so we can move the city forward…. On the other hand, his campaign piggy bank is flush with outside cash,” De Arakal said.

Another detail on the reports showed contributions from political action committees, or PACs. Mansoor has criticized Garlich and Scheafer for accepting money from such committees, but he reported taking $1,500 from the Family Action PAC and $1,000 from the Manufactured Housing Education Trust PAC.

The Family Action PAC, Mansoor said, is a group that “supports traditional family values, and I think that benefits everyone. I haven’t accepted any money from any PAC that expects something in return.”

But Mansoor believes some of Garlich’s supporters, namely Westside business owners, expect the candidates they are supporting to maintain the status quo on the Westside.

“What we’re trying to do is revitalize it through the free market process, and I think it’s clear that some people have expressed an interest in not seeing it revitalized,” Mansoor said.

Louis DeSipio, a political science professor at UC Irvine, said it’s not surprising that money is coming into Costa Mesa’s election from outside the city, because “the issues that are being fought out in Costa Mesa are really just sort of a battle being fought in a bigger war.”

But he doesn’t expect outside funding to become a campaign issue for candidates.

“My suspicion is that it wouldn’t get much traction … in Costa Mesa because the galvanizing issue is how the city is going to respond to the immigration issue,” DeSipio said.