Fountain Valley : Political Notes : Wieder Corrects Report on Campaign Spending
Why would Supervisor Harriett Wieder spend nearly $450,000 in her reelection campaign against an opponent no one had heard of before he filed as a candidate? As it turned out Thursday, she hadn’t.
Wieder filed an amended campaign financial report Thursday showing that she has spent $79,478 on her reelection campaign from Jan. 1 through May 17 this year. Her earlier report said she had spent $442,192.34.
Wieder, who faces only token opposition in the June 3 election from an ambulance service worker, Daniel Meslovich, said the $442,192.34 is the amount she has spent since her 1978 campaign for the supervisor’s seat.
“The numbers give the impression that I have raised and am spending about a half-million dollars in a campaign against a political unknown,” Wieder said in a statement. “That’s simply untrue, and I am trying to correct that incorrect information.”
Wieder began the year with a war chest of nearly $250,000, which political consultants said scared away any established politicians who might have wanted to oppose her for the 2nd District seat, which includes Huntington Beach, Cypress, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Stanton and parts of Westminster and Garden Grove.
She reported raising only $1,780 so far this year. Even that was nearly double the $976 Meslovich reported raising.
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