Front-Runners Total $500,000 in Campaign Spending

County labor leaders put more money into their independent campaign for Alex Padilla in the 7th Los Angeles City Council District on Friday, while Padilla and Corinne Sanchez reported extending their own fund-raising leads over four other candidates.

In all, more than half a million dollars has been spent by and for the two leading contenders in Tuesday’s election, according to reports filed Friday with the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.

With much of the money going into an 11th-hour barrage of slate cards, campaign mailers and get-out-the-vote efforts, Sanchez reported that she topped $236,000 in fund-raising through Wednesday, with just $20,733 unspent.

Contributions to Sanchez during the last week came from the Latino Council Political Action committee, Edison International, Judge Teresa Sanchez-Gordon, Kaiser executive Leland Wong and Warner Bros. Vice President Dan Garcia, an advisor to Mayor Richard Riordan.

Riordan has backed Padilla in the campaign.

Padilla’s campaign reported to the city Ethics Commission that it had topped $200,000 in fund-raising by Wednesday.

That does not include $57,000 spent by the county Federation of Labor and its political action committee on an independent mail campaign and phone banks supporting Padilla, including $1,100 spent Friday by the group.

In addition, the Police Protective League has about 40 LAPD officers operating phone banks through the weekend in support of Padilla, officials said.

Among the other candidates, former San Fernando Mayor Raul Godinez II reported raising $75,000 in contributions and matching funds by Wednesday, Tony Lopez reported raising $51,000 and Ollie McCaulley brought in $16,255.

“I think we’re competitive,” Godinez said, “even though it’s tough to compete with $200,000 campaigns and independent expenditures on top of that.”

“I think we’re going to surprise some people,” he added.

Much of the money raised by Sanchez and Padilla has gone into more than 20 mailers that have flooded the district.

Padilla’s last two mailers questioned Sanchez’s management of El Proyecto del Barrio, a health services and job-training agency that he noted has had some billings for rent challenged by city auditors.

On Friday, Sanchez was joined by County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky at a news conference in Mission Hills where they defended her management record.

Yaroslavsky noted that El Proyecto provides job training and health services for 25,000 people annually.

“She has run this agency in an extremely professional way,” Yaroslavsky said.

He said mailers attacking Sanchez and El Proyecto represent “gutter” politics.