Long Beach Campaign Reports Filed : Final Tab for Mayor’s Race Tops $1 Million

In their quest to become this city’s first full-time mayor, the top three candidates spent more than $1 million competing for a two-year post that pays $67,500 a year, according to final campaign reports filed this week.

Mayor Ernie Kell handily won the contest to raise money as well as votes. He raised and spent about $633,000 from January, 1987, through June 30, 1988, the reports show.

Kell’s figures were boosted in the final stretch when he added $40,000 to the $150,000 he had previously loaned his campaign from his own funds. Kell, a millionaire, is a retired developer who said when he announced for office that he had used some of his own money in every political race he has run.

His runoff competitor, Councilwoman Jan Hall, raised and spent about $358,000 from July 1, 1987, through last June 30. Her husband, insurance broker Jack E. Hall, loaned her campaign $25,000 during the final days.

Shaved One-Third Off Debt

Hall said she shaved about one-third off her $88,000 campaign debt last week with a pool-side fund-raiser at the Long Beach Airport Marriott hotel.

Counting the $56,776 spent by public relations executive Luanne Pryor in placing a close third in the primary election, the total spending by the three top candidates reached $1,005,151, according to the statements released Monday.

Kell, who beat Hall in the June 7 election, obtained most of his money in a series of fund-raising dinners--from an elegant steak-and-lobster catered affair under the Spruce Goose dome to a spaghetti supper at a union hall.

His campaign spokesman, Jeffrey Adler, said funding goals were met and every event was sold out. He said the mayor expects to be repaid for his hefty campaign loan, which he carries at 11% interest. “There will probably be another (fund-raising) event before the end of the year,” Adler said.

Hall defended her fund-raising for the race, saying it allowed her to mail campaign flyers to the voters.

‘Obscene’ Amount of Money

But when told the total figures topped $1 million, she replied: “That much money is obscene to be spent on a campaign.”

Pryor also called the spending “obscene.”

“I hope that people are going to use their own abilities rather than other people’s money to win elections,” she said.

Pryor said she plans to run for mayor again in 1990 on a theme of “Let’s get tough about Long Beach.” In the meantime, she said she plans to sell the Bluff Park-area house she has owned since 1971 and move to Massachusetts to work on a book about attending Harvard University in mid-career. Pryor vowed to return to Long Beach next summer to start mustering her forces for the next campaign.

The heavy spending for the mayor’s race confirmed the worst fears of proponents of campaign finance reform, who predicted a $1-million race before the campaign cranked up earlier this year. Passage of Proposition 73 on the June statewide ballot is expected to restrict spending in local political races.

The measure, among other things, places a $1,000 limit on contributions by individuals.