Cut-Rate Campaign : Spending Minimal as O’Connor, Morrow Battle in Mayoral Primary

San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor has outspent her only major rival in next month’s mayoral primary by nearly 2 to 1, but the race itself appears destined to be the city’s least expensive in a decade, campaign finance reports filed Thursday show.

The finance reports show that, as of May 21, O’Connor had spent only $48,839.52 in her reelection campaign. Former San Diego City Councilman Floyd Morrow had spent $26,654, including $11,800 of his own money, the reports show.

As the June 7 mayoral campaign enters its final days, O’Connor’s and Morrow’s combined spending total of only about $75,000 is dwarfed by the multimillion-dollar races seen in mayoral contests throughout the 1980s--and, in fact, is considerably less than the amounts typically spent by City Council candidates.

“I’d say it’s a step in the right direction,” said O’Connor, who spent more than $780,000, including $560,000 of her own money, in her unsuccessful 1983 mayoral race. “The money spent in some of those past campaigns was just crazy.”

When she was elected two years ago in the special 1986 election necessitated by Roger Hedgecock’s felony conviction, O’Connor, adhering to a self-imposed limit, spent $268,000. The overall cost of that race, however, topped the $1-million mark, with former City Councilman Bill Cleator spending $607,414 and Morrow, who finished third with 19% of the vote, about $100,000.

Barring a last-minute spending frenzy that, given the nature of the race, seems unlikely, the cost of this year’s mayoral campaign may only barely reach six figures. With O’Connor holding a better than 2-to-1 lead in recent polls, neither she nor Morrow has much incentive to spend heavily in the closing days of a race that, from its outset, has been widely viewed as more of a democratic formality than an election.

Morrow, in fact, said he expects to spend no more than $50,000, while O’Connor plans to hold her campaign budget below $75,000. The three minor candidates in the race--semi-retired public relations official John Kelley, City Hall gadfly Rose Lynne and businessman Charles Ulmschneider--are expected to make negligible expenditures in their campaigns.

O’Connor said Thursday that her modest campaign budget likely would have been even smaller had it not been for money spent earlier this year when two potentially strong opponents--County Supervisor Susan Golding and City Councilman Ed Struiksma--contemplated entering the race.

“We had to prepare for the possibility of a tough race,” O’Connor explained.

Expenditures Dropped

After both Struiksma and Golding decided not to run, O’Connor’s campaign expenditures dropped dramatically, the reports show. During the first three months of the year, O’Connor’s campaign spent $39,780.62. But from March 18 through May 21, the campaign spent only $9,058.90.

Overall, O’Connor has received $81,118.58 in contributions, with $19,078.58 of that coming during the two-month period covered by Thursday’s report. In contrast, Morrow, most of whose contributions were $25 or less, raised only $12,221.57 but supplemented that with his $11,800 personal loan.

“Fund raising has been a little harder than I anticipated,” Morrow acknowledged. “But, if we can double what we have on this report by the election, I’ll be happy.”