More Campaign Expense Documents Filed
Thursday, March 15, 2012 @ 6:27 PM
Prince George, B.C.- In addition to Shari Green spending more than $81,147.55 on her campaign, ( see previous story) several other members of Council have filed their campaign expenses.
Albert Koehler:
Spent $39, 965.00
Single largest contributor to campaign was himself, as he put in $23,252.16 of his own money, his company kicking in $9,612.92 and his wife is recorded as putting in $5,000.00
Others who contributed include:
- Wolftek Industries $1,000
- Commonwealth Financial $500
He spent $16,526.00 on advertising, and $17 thousand on signs, pamphlets and brochures.
Koehler garnered 7,324 votes, meaning each vote cost $5.45
Cameron Stolz:
Councillor Stolz spent $15,327.19 on his campaign.
He lists his major contributors as:
- David McWalter $500.
- Margaret McWalter $500.
- Commonwealth Financial $500.
- Grewal Group $500.
- Westcana electric $500.
- Farr Installations $500.
- WIC $500.
- Brink Forest Products $500.
- Northern Electric Contractors $1,000
- WolfTek Industries $1,000
- Shooters Bar and Grill $2,000
- NR Motors $2500.
- Great White Entertainment ( his own company) $3,202.19
He reports spending $4,536.42 on advertising, and $10,665.77 on signs, pamphlets, flyers and brochures.
Stolz collected 7,146 votes, meaning his successful bid cost $2.14 per vote.
Dave Wilbur:
Councillor Dave Wilbur collected just $4,800 in contributions to his campaign and spent $15,929.97.
The single largest contributor to his campaign was NR Motors $2,500 while he received $500 from Group Health and $500 from Majestic Management.
Wilbur spent $8,053.02 on advertising, $4,435.20 on signs pamphlets and brochures and $3350.06 on advertising and promotion not covered by the other two categories.
Wilbur netted 6932 votes meaning he spent $2.29 per vote.
Frank Everett:
Councillor Frank Everitt collected $24,955.00 for his campaign and spent $24,952.77.
Everitt received a great deal of support from the labour movement:
- Pulp and Paperworkers Local 9 $500
- USW local 1-424 $250.
- USW local 1-405 $100.
- USW local 1-425 $200.
- USW local 1-417 $250.
- USW local 2009 $300.
- USW –PEC-11 fund $3,000.
- Intnl Assoc Of Heat Frost Insulators local 118 $250
- UFCW local 1518 $1,000
Other significant donations came from:
- Brian Fehr $2,000
- Canfor $1500.
- John Major $400
- K2 Electric $750.
- North Labour Law Corp $2500.
- Lorne Hannon $2500
- Great Pacific Capital Corp $500.
- WE Group Benefits and Consultants $1,000.
- Best Buy Propane $500.00
- Carrier Lumber
- Conifex $2500.
- 5th and Carney Auto Sales $500.
Everitt spent $9507.40 on advertising and $9230.57 on signs, pamphlets and brochures. He also paid $2654.91 in compensation to “persons for campaign work”.
Everitt received 5,638 votes, which means the election cost him $4.42 per vote.
Comments
This is unconscionable. Do people realize that corporations are paying our politicians to run? Do we want big business to fund our political campaigns?
So can someone tell me if newly elected councillors received money for their campaign from certain people involved in a controversial rezoning project, is that a conflict of interest? and should 4th reading be thrown out? Just wondering.
Jon, they are not really large corporations but I get your point. In a city relatively small like ours, all donations should be capped at some figure like 500 bucks or something. When somebody gives you a couple thousand, it is probably extremely difficult to act in ways that may displease them.
It shouldn’t require thousands of dollars to convince pg to vote you in if you are an articulate, well respected, community individual, which many of our elected people are. Exorbitant campaign expenditures convince me that a person has to overcompensate for their shortcomings and are the people we should least want representing the electorate. Undoubtedly they are in servitude to their kingmakers.
How does a small business deal with politicians that come to your business and ask for money? Can they say no and risk pissing them off? How would you handle it?
I don’t think corporations or unions should be allowed to make political contributions. They should be allowed to buy advertisements in their own name endorsing a candidate in public, but should not be allowed to buy elections behind the curtain at election time.
I think only voting citizens should be allowed to donate, and they should be capped at something like $250 per individual. This would encourage more open debates where voters and the media could get more informed on who they will be making judgments on.
Most people with inner dignity wouldn’t want to compromise their dignity selling their soul to get the needed campaign donations to make a run at politics.
In this vain I find it interesting the candidates that put a lot of their own money up front. That is a big statement to me.
Sherri Green put up a weeks pay of her own for the most expensive campaign in the cities history… that says a lot IMO about her own commitment… it says willing sock puppet to me.
It says she has a lot of favors to pay back to me. If you look at her expense report she also got the leftovers contributions returned to HER. So you can deduct over $600 from her own contribution right off the top. You don’t get that much business support without giving the impression that at some date it will be good for that business to support her. If I had enough time to keep a close eye and watch who gets what contract, who gets what job and who gets favourable council decisons I would bet you would see a lot of her “contributors” getting preferential treatment. And obviously they count on the fact that people don’t and can’t take the time to watchdog them. Maybe a citizens coalition should get together and pay a watchdog to watch every step our politicians make, since they all act like spoilt brats most of the time we should treat them as such.
It’s time for a change in BC politics.
This kind of funding is totally out of line if we want whats best for our city.
This kind of spending is going to continue the building or should I say stagnation of their city.
There should be limits on $ from a single source and limits on total spending based on the # of total voters.
$40k to be a councilor??? How the heck are we supposed to attract real community minded people to this job and actually get them elected?
I know I know the world is about money, but look into our political rules we are one of the worst provinces in this country.
I am not in any way saying Albert is a bad guy. I just think that kind of spending is BS. With a high percentage of poorly educated voters who just vote for a name $$$’s makes a huge difference.
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