ELECTIONS / VENTURA CITY COUNCIL : Donation List Topped by Bennett

A slow-growth write-in candidate, an incumbent councilman and two candidates backed by the Ventura Chamber of Commerce have become the top money-raisers in the Ventura City Council race, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday.

Slow-growth advocate Steve Bennett took in the most money of the 18 candidates between Sept. 22 and Oct. 19, raising $12,199 for his write-in campaign from his relatives, fellow Nordhoff High School teachers and supporters.

Fellow slow-growth candidate Deputy Mayor Donald Villeneuve took in $5,841 in that time.

Pro-business candidates Greg Carson, with $10,621, and Tom Buford, with $7,192, took in the second- and third-highest amounts, which included support from Ventura businesses and sizable contributions from the Ventura Board of Realtors.

The board’s contributions of $750 each to the pro-business campaigns of Carson, Buford and Jack Tingstrom were funneled through the California Real Estate Political Action Committee, one of the most powerful PACs in the state. The board gave $200 to pro-business candidate Marcum Patrick in the same manner, records show.

But Marty Harder, head of the Ventura Board of Realtors’ government relations committee, said Thursday that the money was all raised locally and that the procedure is routine.

Every year, Ventura realtors’ political contributions are put into a CREPAC account in Sacramento, which the realtors then channel to local candidates, Harder said.

The reports filed Thursday for the Nov. 5 election also revealed some non-monetary gifts to candidates.

Patrick took in $6,053 in donations, the bulk of which was $4,230 worth of advertising time given to him by Ventura radio station KKUR-FM.

And $1,650 of Bennett’s contributions came in the form of flower seed packets, which his campaign workers have been distributing along with his literature.

Campaign gifts reported Thursday totaled $52,995, which, added to the amounts given before Sept. 21, make this nearly a $100,000 race, records show.

Villeneuve lamented the rising cost of campaigning for the City Council.

“Obviously there was a hell of a lot of influx of money into this campaign,” he said. “I find it rather dismaying that the cost of running for an election in local public office is now beginning to escalate the way it has in the federal and state offices.”

But Carson said candidates must spend that much to reach the voters.

Carson has raised the most money to date, amassing $24,331. Bennett has raised $17,199, which includes a $5,000 loan that he made to his campaign. And Buford has raised $16,580. Villeneuve has taken in $13,000.

Candidates’ forums are poorly attended and poorly covered by the media, “and I don’t think people are able to know who the candidates are,” Carson said. “It’s up to the candidates to separate themselves out from the pack.”

But while the financial reports filed Thursday reveal that this year’s council candidates are raising almost as much money as the 1989 candidates, the heaviest hitters are missing from the funding fight.

The Orange County developers who gave to pro-growth candidates are missing in the 1991 race.

And Patagonia Inc., the Ventura clothing manufacturer that shoveled thousands of dollars into advertisements for slow-growth candidates two years ago, is offering only the use of its cafeteria and a few volunteer canvassers to Bennett and Villeneuve in the present campaign, said Kevin Sweeney, a company spokesman.

However, Patagonia officials have given individually to the slow-growth campaigns; Sweeney contributed $100 to Bennett’s campaign and Patagonia owners Melinda and Yvon Chouinard gave $1,500 to Villeneuve’s campaign.

And Bennett listed the time at Patagonia’s cafeteria as being worth $240.

The campaign finance reports also revealed some of the financial muscle behind the pro-business candidates.

Venturans for Responsible Government, which has run a newspaper advertisement and posted signs in support of Carson, Buford and Tingstrom, raised $9,291 between Sept. 22 and Oct. 19, according to the group’s report.

Of the $19,734 raised so far this season by Venturans for Responsible Government, $3,900 came from the Ventura County Economic Development Assn.

The pro-business group also received a $1,000 contribution directly from the Ventura Board of Realtors, $1,600 from the Ventura Auto Center Dealers Assn. and a $901 donation from Swift Financial Corp. of Oxnard, which complemented the group’s earlier unreported donation of $99.