What’s a City Council seat worth in West Hollywood?
According to the latest city campaign finance statements, $211,193.92.
With total numbers in for the 2013 City Council race, including contributions through June, the nine candidates for two seats raised a total of $422,378.
By comparison, the 2011 City Council election seats were 50 percent cheaper, with total spending of $140,170 per seat.
Incumbent council members John Duran and Jeffrey Prang greatly out-raised their challengers in the 2013 race and comfortably kept their seats.
Duran and his supporters raised $212,795, nearly double what it cost Mayor Abbe Land to win re-election in 2011. She was the largest fundraiser then with $108,912 in contributions.
In 2013, Prang finished with $129,842 in contributions, followed by Sam Borelli with $32,065, Steve Martin $26,004, Chris Landavazo $15,286, Tristan Schukraft $5,096, Nick Garzilli $1,000 and Tom Demille $300.
Also on the ballot was a measure imposing term limits on City Council members. The measure, dubbed Measure C, passed by an overwhelming majority with 62 percent of the votes cast.
Total campaign finance numbers show “Yes on Measure C” out-raised its opposition $25,363 to $15,000.
thieves
What ever it actually generate’s you in return!
@Todd – I agree. FULL DISCLOSURE of campaign financing.
I’m not sure what would work here. Sunshine is always a good thing, but it hasn’t shamed anyone into giving back money or recusing themselves from votes on specific projects. Voter apathy is a big problem too as it seems to take mystical powers to get a decent turn out. Perhaps we should do mail-in only elections. More candidate forums that are televised would be interesting. Maybe take public questions from Tweets. I don’t know, something more interesting. There is also the public financing option, but I don’t think that would work either. How about each candidate be required to… Read more »
I agree with Rudolf.
I would add that the majority of ‘contributions’ to council members come from businesses and their affiliates outside our city. this is all perfectly legal and of course any connection to lucrative contracts / permits is pure coincidence.
It is up to us to decide if we want to continue letting outside interests decide our council elections or if we might become a progressive city by daring to put a limit on outside contributions or by having council members recuse themselves from votes that directly involve their major ‘contributors’. Just the most basic ethics reform…