Loans fuel board run

Due largely to family support, Corona del Mar High School parent Loretta Zimmerman continues to lead the money race among candidates for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board of trustees.

Zimmerman, who is facing incumbent Judy Franco and teachers union favorite Sandy Asper, reported $35,565 in contributions in her statement to the Orange County Registrar of Voters on Thursday. Nearly three-quarters of her funding came from her husband, Gregory Zimmerman, who lent her $13,500 in August and added another $12,000 this month.

Most of Zimmerman’s campaign funds in the last period went to mailers and other literature. With her outside support coming largely from parents in the Corona del Mar community, Zimmerman said that publicity helped to spread her support.

“The mailings have let people know that there are new candidates with new ideas,” she said. “We are competing in two different cities here. We have to campaign in the city of Costa Mesa as well as Newport Beach, and we’re making a very serious effort to get the message out to all the voters.”

By Thursday afternoon, all but one of Newport-Mesa’s school board candidates had filed their finance statements. Karen Yelsey, a former Corona del Mar High School parent who is challenging incumbent Serene Stokes, did not declare her funds from the last month. When the first campaign statements came in on Oct. 5, Yelsey ranked closely behind Zimmerman in money raised.

Stokes, who has $14,522 for the year to date, amassed $3,373 in the last three weeks. Except for her husband, all her individual donors were unlisted, Stokes said, because they each contributed $99 or less.

Among candidates who filed this week, Franco placed second with $29,737. Like Zimmerman, she benefited from a loan from her husband — $12,500 — but also got smaller donations from Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove) and Newport Beach City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle. Her other opponent, Asper, declared $7,080, with support from a number of Newport-Mesa teachers.

Tran also contributed $200 to Kimberly Clark, a nurse and therapist who is running for an open seat on the board. Clark more than tripled her campaign funds from a month ago, contributing $2,500 of her own money.

Her opponent, Michael Collier, filed a statement declaring less than $1,000 in funds, but said he would file a larger statement by January after recently paying for a website. Collier, whom the teachers union has endorsed, said he expected word of mouth to push him to victory.

“I’ve lived in the community for a number of years,” said Collier, a former Estancia High School teacher and graduate of Orange Coast College. “I know a lot of people. You talk to enough people and they talk to enough people, and things go in your direction.”