Schillo-Loh Race Broke Record for Campaign Spending, Reports Show : Elections: Combatants devoted $254,000 to supervisorial contests. Businessman Probst gave $35,000 to council candidates.

Frank Schillo and Trudi Loh shattered spending records in their contest for the Thousand Oaks-based supervisorial seat last fall, collectively paying $254,000 in a race that put Schillo into the 2nd District seat on the powerful county Board of Supervisors.

Campaign reports filed Tuesday also show that wealthy North Ranch businessman Charles E. Probst continued to donate thousands of dollars to Thousand Oaks City Council candidates long after the Nov. 7 election.

Counting a post-election contribution of $11,000 to incoming Councilman Andy Fox, Probst gave $35,000 to four candidates in the crowded race, according to the reports.

Other donations in the last days of the Thousand Oaks campaign seemingly targeted incumbent Elois Zeanah. Records show that two home builders with huge projects before the council contributed heavily to her rivals, whom she defeated in the polls.

The Schillo-Loh contest easily surpassed the previous record for a supervisorial campaign set in 1986, when Madge L. Schaeffer and Ed Jones spent about $212,000 in the 2nd District. That was equaled in 1990, when Bill Davis and Vicky Howard ran for the supervisor’s seat representing Simi Valley.

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Of the more than $133,000 Loh spent on mailers and television, radio and newspaper ads, nearly $45,000 came in loans to herself, records show.

“There are tremendously important issues at stake in the supervisor’s race,” attorney Loh said, explaining the loans to her campaign. “Considering that when I began the primary last year (Schillo) had a 10-to-1 name recognition advantage, that speaks well for how well I did.”

Schillo was not far behind, spending just over $121,000, including nearly $40,000 in loans to himself, according to his filing statement.

“I didn’t start off with the idea I was going to spend $121,000,” Schillo said. “But paying for television costs a lot of money.”

Schillo, the longtime Thousand Oaks councilman who beat Loh by about 10 percentage points, predicted such spending will be a trend of the future.

“If you want to get the word out, that’s probably going to continue,” he said.

Candidates in other races throughout Ventura County also dug deep when seeking elected offices.

For example, Norman J. Nagel barely beat Annette Burrows in a race for Gregory P. Cole’s vacated seat on the Ventura County Community College District board. But he spent more than $32,000, including $24,000 of his own money, to beat Burrows, who spent less than $1,000 campaigning, records show.

Moorpark Councilman Scott Montgomery and former Simi Valley Councilwoman Judy Mikels spent a total of $124,000 in the race for the 4th District seat vacated by Howard. Mikels beat Montgomery by about 10 percentage points.

Their spending was virtually even, with Mikels paying about $2,000 more than her rival. But Montgomery reported outstanding debts of more than $17,000.

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“I guess we’re going to have to pay it off,” Montgomery said. “We’re hoping that friends and supporters will continue to contribute.”

Still, Montgomery has no regrets.

“It did take at least that much to get people the message,” he said.

Among nine city elections in November, the Thousand Oaks City Council race easily drew the largest field and most intense campaigning.

Probst, the elusive multimillionaire who gave $2 million to the Civic Arts Plaza last fall, not only supported the victorious Fox, but also three losing candidates in the field of 16.

Days before the election, Probst gave $6,000 to Compton police detective Mike Markey, who finished fourth. He also gave youthful candidate Mike Friedman a total of $14,000, including $4,000 after Friedman had placed 10th.

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“It came as a surprise,” said Friedman, 27, who also received more than $12,000 from local auto dealers. “He knew that I had some debts, and knocked off half of it.”

About a month before the election, both Markey and Friedman spoke at public hearings in favor of Probst’s hotly debated home landscaping plan, even though it violated city policies. But neither candidate ever met the businessman.

On Dec. 10, Probst gave $5,000 to Marshall Dixon, the 11th-place finisher.

“He had indicated that he was going to make a contribution to my campaign (in October),” Dixon said. “But then he was distracted and deterred by a number of things that happened.”

Builders and developers also donated heavily in the last days of the Thousand Oaks council campaign.

Fox received $1,000 from Lang Ranch Co., a firm building a 2,257-unit project at the north end of Westlake Boulevard. Earlier in the campaign, Fox said he would accept no more than that from local developers.

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“I did have a limit on how much money I would take from a developer that had business in the city,” Fox said. “My integrity is not for sale.”

Because Lang Ranch won a complicated lawsuit with the city that prohibits Thousand Oaks from imposing restrictions on the project, Fox said it is unlikely that he will be called on to make any decisions on the development.

But one aspect of the project, a flood-control dam and debris basin, will be considered by the council later this month.

Lang Ranch also made a major contribution--$2,500--to the Citizens to Save Our City campaign, a group that focused its attention on booting Councilwoman Zeanah from office.

The same group received $3,500 from Courtney Homes Inc., one of two firms building Dos Vientos, a Newbury Park project that has won approval for 220 luxury homes and wants to build 2,100 more.

In some cases, however, campaign spending made no difference to voters.

Cole, for instance, the dentist who left his seat on the community college board to run for the Thousand Oaks council, used more than $27,600 of his own money and about $13,000 in contributions on cable television and other ads.

It was good enough to place only ninth, about 100 votes behind mobile carwash owner Lance Winslow, who spent less than $1,000.

Pols is a Times staff writer and McDonald is a Times correspondent.