SANTA ANA : Incumbents Lead in Fund Raising

Incumbents in this year’s city election are raising and spending more money than their challengers, according to mandatory campaign finance reports filed Friday.

Mayor Daniel H. Young, who faces one other candidate for the two-year mayoral term, and three incumbent council members who face challenges from five candidates, have each raised more than $40,000 to fund their campaigns.

Incumbent Richards L. Norton, who faces two challengers, leads all fund raising with $94,743. Most of the money came to Friends of Rick Norton, which has raised $83,996. The remaining $10,747 was raised by a separate committee to reelect Norton.

Young reported raising $84,631, incumbent Ron May showed $48,862 in receipts and incumbent Miguel A. Pulido Jr. listed $42,432.

Two of May’s biggest contributors were the Santa Ana Firemen’s and the Santa Ana Police Officers’ political action committees. Their contributions total $8,500 to date.

May was part of a council majority who initially urged the council not to pass the city’s annual budget until contract negotiations with both the police and fire unions were completed. May changed his mind two weeks later, however, and voted to approve the budget before the contracts were settled.

Pulido’s opponent, Coween Dickerson, received a $5,000 contribution from the Santa Ana Police Officers’ PAC. She has so far raised a total of $6,933.

School board member Robert L. Richardson is the leading fund-raiser among challengers with $25,591.

He is one of two candidates trying to unseat May. Glenn Mondo, who is challenging Norton, and mayoral candidate Richard Moser have each raised less than $5,000. Pulido leads in expenditures with $46,437.

Irene Martinez-Griffiths, who is challenging Norton, and Robert Banuelos, who is running against May, did not file reports Friday.