Bill Cleator Outspending O’Connor by Huge Margin

San Diego City Councilman Bill Cleator has outspent former Councilwoman Maureen O’Connor by about 2 1/2-to-1 in the San Diego mayoral race, campaign finance reports filed Thursday show.

The finance reports show that, as of Saturday, Cleator had received contributions totaling $472,268.91 and had spent $459,186.19. In contrast, O’Connor received $198,859.82 in contributions and reported expenditures totaling $186,222.15.

“By the time it’s over, I’d expect we’ll be outspent by an even bigger margin,” O’Connor said. “But we’ll use volunteers and hard work to do what they’re doing with dollars.”

O’Connor, who topped Cleator, 46%-30%, in the Feb. 25 primary, adhered to a $150,000 spending limit in the primary and has pledged to spend less than $175,000 in the June 3 runoff for the 2 1/2 years remaining in the term of Roger Hedgecock, who resigned in December after his felony conviction on campaign-law violations.

Previous financial reports showed that O’Connor spent about $111,000 during the primary, meaning that, as of Saturday, she had spent roughly $75,000 in the runoff. So O’Connor could spend nearly $100,000 during the final 2 1/2 weeks of the race and still stay within her self-imposed ceiling. She predicted, however, that her final spending figure will be “substantially below” $175,000.

Cleator, meanwhile, spent about $270,000 in the primary and has raised that figure by about $190,000 in the runoff, according to the reports.

Spent More Than He Raised

The campaign financial disclosure reports filed Thursday covered the period from March 18 to May 17. During that two-month period, Cleator actually spent more than he raised, as his report listed $175,696.51 in contributions and $187,981.75 in expenses--a deficit covered by an earlier surplus in his campaign treasury. O’Connor raised $78,480.69 and spent $73,037.08 during the two-month period.

In keeping with her campaign’s guiding tenet that City Hall is controlled by moneyed special interests, O’Connor has pledged not to accept contributions from developers, to avoid even the appearance of conflicts of interest on land-use decisions if she is elected.

However, the reports show that O’Connor has received several thousand dollars in donations from what she terms “development interests,” including real estate agents, architects and mortgage bankers. In contrast, Cleator, who has argued that it is “wrong to exclude anyone from the political process,” has received tens of thousands of dollars from developers.

A precise breakdown of Cleator’s contributions and expenses, however, could not be determined Thursday night because his campaign released only the overall totals in those categories. The deadline for the disclosure reports reaching the city clerk’s office is today.

None of the Cash Her Own

O’Connor’s finance report also showed that she had not contributed any money to her campaign. In her narrow 52%-48% loss to Hedgecock in 1983, O’Connor, the wife of multimillionaire businessman Robert O. Peterson, was widely accused of trying to buy the mayor’s office after spending more than $560,000 of her own money and $780,000 overall.

O’Connor has said that she hopes she won’t have to spend any of her money in the runoff but has stopped short of ruling out that possibility, explaining that she might use her own funds if she is attacked in any 11th-hour “hit pieces” from the Cleator camp.

Television advertisements were the major expense listed on O’Connor’s finance report, totaling about $40,000, or more than half of her expenditures over the last two months. The remaining expenditures covered various costs such as consulting fees, headquarters rent and telephone bills.

The contributions to O’Connor’s campaign ranged from a 50-cent donation from Jerome Carini, a San Diego student, to 569 contributions of $250, the maximum individual donation allowed under city campaign laws.