Campaign finance reports: Documents shows races unbalanced

Julie Ann Grimm | The New Mexican

1/24/2008 - 1/25/08

Candidates seeking City Council seats this spring can be expected to collectively spend hundreds of thousand of dollars before the March 4 municipal election.

Thursday marked the first deadline for filing campaign-finance reports with the city clerk, and the documents show in two of three contested council races, one candidate has more than doubled the other's collections.


Garcia, who lost to Bushee in 1996, has vowed to limit fundraising. He filed a hand-written declaration with the clerk last month in which he promised to limit his campaign expenditures to $1 per registered voter. (Each City Council district has approximately 12,500 voters.) Garcia said later he opposed high-dollar spending.

Garcia has loaned $1,000 to his own campaign and collected donations from three friends.

Bushee's report begins with a balance forward of $12,073 from her successful 2004 campaign for the City Council, then follows with two pages of individual donations she said came from a "kickoff event" she held last November.

Donations include $300 from attorney Frank Herdman and $250 each from retiree William White and attorney Joe Lennihan.

In District 2, where two candidates are vying to fill a seat being vacated by Councilor Karen Heldmeyer, professional facilitator Rosemary Romero raised $9,011 while real-estate agent Robbie Dobyns reported $4,488.

Most of Dobyns' money came from colleagues in the real-estate industry, including $2,413 from the New Mexico RPAC, a political action committee of the Realtors Association of New Mexico, and $1,500 from Santa Fe Realty Partners, the agency where he works.

Other donations include $250 from David and Barbara Prescott, the parents of his finance chairperson, and $100 each from John Greenspan and Stanley Spiegel, who serve with Dobyns on the radio station KSFR board of directors.

He also logged 40 pounds of red chile donated in-kind by his brother, Marty Dobyns, who owns Santa Fe Ole, a food manufacturing and packaging plant. Dobyns said he's using the red chile as a give-away with his campaign literature.

Romero's contributions came from a five-page list of individual supporters, including family members and neighbors who gave between $25 and $500. Big donors include Canyon Road attorney Richard Ellenberg and Walter Ganz, with whom Romero served on several boards of directors for nonprofits, who both kicked in $500; physician David Gunderson, who gave $400, and daughter Linnea Morris, who contributed $350.

Marilyn Bane, president of the Neighborhood Network, former school board member Marcy Litzenberg and former City Councilor Ouida McGregor also are on the list.

In District 3, Councilor Miguel Chavez reported collections of $8,379, while challenger Martin Lujan, a Santa Fe school board member, reported $11,350.

Of Lujan's donations, $6,975 came from individuals, including $900 from Thomas Dillenberg, a retired executive who lives on Canyon Road, and $500 each from Santa Fe attorney Owen Lopez, Edward and Mary O'Brien, retirees who live in Massachusetts and are the parents of Lujan's wife, investor Garrett Thornburg, and the candidate's brothers, Larry Lujan and John Lujan.

Lujan also logged $400 each from three partners in the city-owned Railyard movie theater and retail complex that will include REI: Rick Jaramillo, Allen Branch and Marco Gonzales.

Chavez, who is seeking his third term, rolled over $4,994 from his previous campaign and received a $500 contribution from attorney Richard Ellenberg. Other major contributions include $500 from J. and Mary Perkins, (J. Perkins is a member of the Upper Canyon Road Association) and $250 from living-wage advocates Carol Oppenheimer and Morton Simon.

Chavez also reported $6,386 in in-kind contributions of office space from San Isidro Plaza LLC, part of a development by Jeff Branch.

Two political groups that plan to lobby for ballot measures also reported contributions, one called Yes! Santa Fe Parks and Trails and another named Voting Matters.

The first group — which favors passage of a bond issue to improve parks and trails throughout the city at a cost of $30 million — has collected $8,880. Shelly Robinson, who is treasurer of the group and serves on the city's Bicycle and Trails Advisory Committee, said she and other volunteers aim to keep up interest in the issue.

Voting Matters, which is rallying support for several proposed amendments to the city charter, reported it has collected $1,880.

For the first time, the city has posted the campaign contribution documents on its Web site this year. To view the entire set of reports, log on to www.santafenm.gov, then follow the "Government" link to "City Clerk" and "Regular Municipal Election."

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.