NORTH LAKE COUNTY — Everyone knows that money talks. As incumbent Gary Lewis and challenger Denise Rushing continue the runoff for the office of District Three Supervisor, nothing is as telling as campaign contribution figures.
Lewis and Rushing can be heard touting similar values: water availability and quality, internal economy, the importance of redevelopment, alternative energy. But what do the numbers say?
Well, for one thing, they back up the claims of longtime residents who say that this is one of the biggest political races Lake County has ever seen.
Lewis and Rushing were the top two of three candidates in the June 6 Primary Election, in which Lewis took 34.2 percent of the votes cast and Rushing took 46.6 percent.
District Three includes Lake Pillsbury, Blue Lakes, Upper Lake, Nice, Lucerne, Spring Valley, Glenhaven and Clearlake Oaks. Its Northshore is the focus of county plans for redevelopment, which has been a sore spot for the area in this election.
That, along with concerns about another casino in Upper Lake, the county”s agricultural industry, water and flood control are at issue in this election.
Campaign records at the county Registrar of Voters office reveal that this is also one of the county”s most expensive political races.
Spending just for the Nov. 8 runoff averages $17,500 for each candidate, a figure competitive with county Auditor Controller Pam Cochrane”s total expenditure of approximately $18,500 for the 1998 June Primary.
District Four Supervisor Anthony Farrington spent nearly $32,000 just for the March 2004 election.
With county records indicating that a more typical amount for one election is less than $10,000, the spending in this race says a lot about how important victory is to each candidate.
Registrar of Voters Office records indicate that Lewis began gearing up for this race as early as January of 2005, raising a total of $44,480 since then.
Of that total, 44.9 percent is from out-of-county sources.
“I”ve been looking at races for 20-plus years,” said District One Supervisor Ed Robey. “This is unusual.”
Robey said that percentage raises questions for him regarding whether or not Lake County”s best interest is being considered.
“There are always going to be people from outside who want to come in and do things in the county,” said Robey. “It”s just a matter of who”s establishing the policies and goals. Is the outside developer paying for the impacts their projects have on our water systems, our sewer systems, our road systems and on law enforcement, or are the people who live here picking up that cost?”
Lewis recently said that growth can be “controlled as incremental growth.”
However, District Five Supervisor Rob Brown pointed out that of the companies listed in Lewis” out of county contributors, some of them have local interests. “They have businesses that create jobs in the county,” he said.
Rushing started raising funds in January of this year, and has raised a total of $50,704.45 in contributions.
Her out-of-county contributions constitute 10.7 percent of that number.
What may be the most telling, however, is how much each candidate has received from within District Three. Lewis holds the lead as of the Oct. 21 filing date, with $13,250 (29.8 percent) of his contributions coming from individuals and businesses in the area, compared to Rushing”s $11,023.90 (21.7 percent) from District Three.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
