Highest Campaign Tab of 12 Candidates : Mayor Spends Most in Lawndale Races

Mayor Sarann Kruse is the biggest spender among 12 candidates seeking election to the Lawndale City Council on April 12, according to campaign spending reports made public earlier this month.

Kruse has accumulated $4,930 in expenses in her bid for a fourth two-year term as mayor, while her three challengers spent much less, and five of the 12 candidates reported no expenditures at all.

Kruse reported taking in $5,851 in contributions at a November fund-raising dinner that cost $3,063, netting her campaign $2,788 in the six-month reporting period ending Dec. 31, 1987. Before July 1, 1987, she reported spending $198, and for the reporting period from Jan. 1, 1988, to Feb. 27, 1988, she showed $1,669 in expenses.

Spending of 3 Challengers

The three other candidates for mayor have spent much less:

Councilman Larry Rudolph reported $609 in expenses and no contributions from Jan. 1 through Feb. 27. His expenses were paid from a prior reserve of $2,341.

Aerospace production scheduler Ronald V. Maxwell showed expenses of $315 paid out of $265 in contributions and a $120 loan to himself.

Business data analyst Nancy J. Marthens reported no expenditures or contributions.

Next to Kruse, the biggest spender has been Planning Commissioner Carol Norman, who reported spending $2,079 in her bid for election to a four-year council term. She reported a $5,000 loan to herself and a $50 contribution. Also running for a four-year term are Councilman Harold E. Hofmann, who reported spending $255 of his own money; Councilman Terry Birdsall, who declared $315 in expenses paid from a reserve of $329, and office manager Virginia Rhodes and paralegal Ralph C. Williams, who each reported no expenditures or contributions.

In the race for a special two-year council term, the top spender was homemaker Tina Zarro, a first-time candidate who reported expenditures of $1,189, paid from a $1,600 loan to herself. Councilman Dan McKenzie and flight engineer Herman Weinstein reported no expenditures or contributions.

Only Rudolph, Birdsall and Kruse showed campaign reserves on hand before Jan. 1.

Rudolph’s reserve of $2,341 and Birdsall’s $329 were acquired from fund raising before July 1, presumably in their previous bids for election. Neither reported any new contributions from July 1 through Feb. 27.

Kruse reported starting the January-February reporting period with a cash reserve of $3,341, thanks largely to the November fund-raising dinner.

Her biggest contributors, each giving $400, were Browning Ferris Industries of California, a San Jose refuse company; Don and Connie De Ford, owners of a local building supply firm; Batta Vujicic and Ivano Stamegna, owners of a development company, and Van Ashkarian, owner of a real estate firm.

Kruse received $250 contributions from Forest City Southpark Two Inc., a development company, and from Roger and Viola Herrera, who are in development and real estate businesses.

Kruse reported $80 contributions in January and February, including an additional $40 from Viola Herrera, according to reports filed at City Hall.