Campaign 2012 - Part 1 (Campaign Spending)

Hold on to your hats.

In my series "Follow the Money" I noted that in 2010, Voigts and Herzog together spent more money by themselves than was spent in other Lake Forest elections for all the candidates combined. Well, now that 2012 is here and Herzog and Voigts are at war over control of the council, the spending is completely off the charts.

To date, total spending exceeds $120,000 and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. One candidate hasn’t even reported his spending yet, and he has been spending big too.

The Voigts camp (Robinson and Nick) have spent more than $70,000 and the Herzog contingent, (Anderson and Zechmeister) have spent more than $37,000. Here’s the individual numbers –

• Nick $40,466.20
• Robinson $31,783.50
• Anderson $20,965.76
• Zechmeister $16,572.00
• Rudolph $6,862.59
• Gardner $4,780.44
• Carrell – has not submitted his FPPC required forms

Not only do we not have Carrell’s figures, we only have the payments made through October 20 for everyone else, so there is a lot more spending going to be accounted for. By the end of the election the total may be close to $200,000 – an obscene amount for a position that pays roughly $700 per month.

By October 20, Nick (at $40,466.20) already exceeded the $37,763 spent by Voigts in all of 2010, and Robinson (at $31,783.50) already exceeded Herzog's year long total of $27,145.

Going through the campaign financing information (available by request at the City Clerk’s office where they are very friendly and helpful, so don't hesitate to go down there and look for yourself) there are a number of things that stick out. Here’s a random sampling of my observations (bear in mind that I am running too, so my observations may not be entirely neutral).

Andermeister

Anderson and Zechmeister deny that they are under the influence of Peter Herzog, despite the fact that he endorsed them, helps at their fund raisers, shows up in their publicity photos, etc. But here is some data that suggests their close association –

• Herzog’s election committee gave both Anderson and Zechmeister $300 each. He gave nothing to anyone else.
• Helen Wilson, Herzog’s mentor, gave $450 in signs to the Andermeisters, and nothing to anyone else.
• Both Anderson and Zechmeister use The PM Group and Taubenpost, services that are also used by Herzog but not by anyone else.
• Anderson uses Herzog’s Treasurer as his Treasurer.

So the close association of Herzog, Anderson and Zechmeister holds true in the campaign financing as well as elsewhere. As I and others have pointed out before, Herzog hopes to get both Anderson and Zechmeister on the Council so that he once more is in control of the decision making process.

Robinson

Robinson’s BFF is Scott Voigts, so it’s not surprising that Voigt’s campaign committee gave Robinson $500. Voigts gave nothing to anyone else.

Robinson is following Voigts’ bad example by accepting money from people with vested interests in city council decisions. This is very unfortunate.

Rudolph

Marcia Rudolph spent nearly $3000 on an Apple Computer and charged it to her campaign. It accounts for nearly 50% of all her spending. I’m not an expert on FPPC (Fair Political Campaign Practices) practices, but it does seem like a questionable expense to me.

Rudolph continues to accept money from people and businesses that had vested interests in city council decisions on which she voted in their favor.

Gardner

I spent less than anyone, yet people complain that I am everywhere. I show up on The Patch, on their doorsteps, in the newspapers, in The Pennysaver, and on signs, many of them handmade. This only confirms to me what wonderful friends and supporters I have, who help me conduct an effective campaign at a minimal cost. I hope we win and maybe this will show everyone that big spending doesn’t have to rule the day. If not, get ready for $300,000 campaign spending budgets.

Coming next – how much of this $100,000+ that candidates for city council have spent got spent in our City. You’ll be surprised. Stay tuned.