Mola Fight Heats Up, Gets Costly : Development: Foes are widely outspent by firm seeking 329 houses at old Hellman acreage.

The two sides in a fierce battle over the future of the Hellman Ranch property have spent more than $225,000--or about $13 per registered voter--in an attempt to win the June 4 election, according to campaign finance documents filed Friday.

At stake are Measure A-91, Mola Development Corp.’s plan to build 329 houses on 149 acres, and Measure B-91, an alternative, non-binding recommendation to leave most of the property as open space or a golf course, with commercial development on a bluff area.

The vast majority of the money spent so far has been by Mola-sponsored Seal Beach Citizens for Parks, Open Space and Responsible Government. Mola has invested five years and about $7 million in its bid for approval of the development, and it has contributed heavily to the campaign that will determine the project’s outcome.

From April 21 to May 18, the company contributed $51,700 to the campaign--all of the committee’s donations for that period. So far this year, the committee has reported $129,637 in contributions, mostly from Mola, and has spent $223,669.

By contrast, Seal Beach Citizens United, which opposes A-91 and supports B-91, has reported $5,970 in spending and $9,438 in contributions this year. Of that, $4,439 was spent during the most recent reporting period.

As the campaign has wound toward its conclusion, each side has stepped up its rhetoric.

Mola opponents have waged their campaign by plastering lawns, telephone poles and car windows with campaign signs and dropping off flyers door to door. They warn that the development would create more traffic congestion and guzzle water.

Some of that literature has stirred controversy, with Mola supporters accusing foes of violating state campaign laws to win votes. In particular, a recent newsletter sent citywide by the Wetlands Restoration Society prompted political consultant Eileen Padberg, who is managing the campaign for the development, to announce Friday that she plans to file a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

The newsletter lays out “The Case Against Mola” and pictures a seal crying by the side of the road as a car marked “Mola” drives away between cramped rows of houses. It also contains political ads urging voters to reject A-91 and solicits donations, saying the newsletter costs $1,000 per issue to print and mail.

Padberg said she plans to complain to the FPPC because the society did not file a campaign financial statement and illegally used its nonprofit bulk-mailing permit for campaign material.

But Galen Ambrose, the society’s president, defended the newsletter as nonpolitical.

“Our charter says we are out to restore, enhance and protect wetlands,” Ambrose said, “and we’re just trying to give information on why wetlands are necessary. We didn’t say in there how to vote at all.”

The seal image, he added, was “just something to catch people’s eyes.”

A large war chest has enabled the Mola-backed Seal Beach Citizens for Responsible Government to send an absentee-ballot mailer early in the campaign and to produce a 10-minute video touting the project--more than 800 of which were distributed door to door Friday.

But the committee has also used a more grass-roots style of campaigning, sending low-key, homey invitations to teas at the homes of A-91 supporters.

The teas have not been well attended, but that was not necessarily their purpose, Padberg said.

“Our intent was to be able to deliver mail to every voter without it looking like a slick, glossy campaign,” she said.

With just over a week to go until Election Day, few political observers in Seal Beach are willing to venture a guess about the outcome. Padberg, whose firm has polled city residents, said the results were “very close.”