Campaign Costs Approaching Those Under Old System : Council Incumbents Outspend Election Challengers

The four San Diego City Council incumbents seeking reelection this month are heavily outspending their major challengers, some by as much as 10 to 1, campaign finance reports released Friday show.

Although this year’s switch to district-only council races was expected to dramatically lower campaign costs, the finance reports also show that the price tag in the four contests is approaching $1-million--comparable to the amounts typically spent by this stage in past council campaigns.

Perhaps the most compelling indicator of the incumbents’ daunting fund-raising edge is that, of the three who face multiple challengers, two--Gloria McColl and Ed Struiksma--have raised and spent substantially more than the combined total of all of their opponents. Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, meanwhile, has spent nearly as much as her two opponents, largely because of personal loans totaling $105,000 that she has made to her campaign.

Councilwoman Judy McCarty, the only incumbent who faces a sole primary opponent, enjoys the widest financial advantage of all, having outspent her challenger, retired San Diego firefighter Ken Key, $97,957.30 to 3,728.88 as of Sept. 2, the reports show.

Largest Campaign Chest

Struiksma, who faces four challengers in his bid for a third four-year term in the 5th District, has amassed the largest campaign treasury of any of the 13 candidates in this month’s primary. As of last week, Struiksma had received contributions totaling $243,236.28, or 10 times as much as any of his four opponents.

In the 3rd District contest, McColl, who, like Struiksma, faces her first serious challenge since the early 1980s, also has crossed the $200,000 threshold, having raised $206,020.49 as of Sept. 2, more than three times greater than the combined total of her two opponents.

With nearly two-thirds of the money that she has raised coming from her own pocket, Wolfsheimer has spent almost as much as the combined total of her two 1st District opponents, according to the reports. As of Sept. 2, Wolfsheimer had spent $149,936.92, and her opponents, former county supervisorial aide Bob Trettin and retired Navy Capt. Harry Mathis, had spent $108,551.70 and $54,219.11, respectively.

Overall, the council candidates had raised or loaned themselves contributions totaling $1,024,208.80 and, as of Sept. 2, had spent $873,029.46, the reports show. Those totals are comparable--in some districts, slightly higher--than the amounts typically spent in past council primaries.

The absence of an appreciable drop in campaign costs to date is not surprising in one respect, given that Proposition E, the district-only proposition narrowly approved by San Diego voters last November, did not structurally alter the nature of council primaries. As a result, the candidates’ spending patterns this year have not differed markedly from those in past primaries.

Under the city’s former two-tiered election system, council primaries were confined to individual districts, followed by citywide runoffs between the top two vote-getters. This year, the council primaries remain district contests, although candidates now can win election outright by receiving more than 50% of the primary vote.

If no candidate receives a majority vote, the top two finishers will compete in a district runoff. Should runoffs be necessary--and they are expected in at least two of the four races--the impact, financial and otherwise, of the change to district-only elections is expected to become clearer.

Regardless, the incumbents’ six-figure campaign treasuries reflect as much the strong opposition that they face as they do the incumbents’ efforts to wrap up the election in the primary.

In the 1st District, Wolfsheimer, who is running for a second term, has been forced to rely on her own money to keep pace with her two challengers. Including the $105,000 that she donated to her own campaign, she has raised $166,858. Trettin has received contributions totaling $109,436.50, and Mathis, who spent $16,100 of his own money, has raised $66,420.40.

McColl, who is running for the third time to retain the 3rd District seat to which she was appointed in 1983, had spent $180,400.85 as of Sept. 2, the reports show. Her major opponent, real estate broker John Hartley, had spent only $43,734.37 during the same period, including $1,000 in personal money, and businessman Charles Ulmschneider spent $5,975.79 in his long-shot campaign.

Struiksma’s $192,262.54 spending total dwarfs the amounts spent by his four opponents in the 5th District, being nearly six times as much as their cumulative total. Among the challengers, former San Diego City Councilman Floyd Morrow had spent $21,868, including $14,000 of his own money; former Wolfsheimer aide Linda Bernhardt had spent $11,989, and lawyer Mike Eckmann had spent $2,405 ($20 less than he has loaned his campaign). Marketing consultant Bob Switzer did not file a report, indicating that he intends to spend less than $1,000.

In the 7th District race, McCarty, a prohibitive favorite in her bid for a second term, has raised $118,965.18, contrasted with only $5,716 for Key.