Campaign posts debts

Group that vied for Measure F’s passage is asking donors to help with $33,000 of debt. Supporters say they’re willing to pitch in.The campaign team for Measure F, the $282-million school bond that voters passed earlier this month, has asked the community for donations to help it pay off debts from the campaign.

At the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s Tuesday meeting, board member Martha Fluor requested that Measure F supporters send checks to Citizens for Quality Schools, the group that formed in September to campaign for the bond. According to Fluor and campaign chairman Mark Buchanan, the group’s debt stands at around $33,000.

Fluor said the campaign team would send letters to all its supporters asking for contributions, although others in the community are invited to donate as well.

“If everyone could just send $15 to $20, we could pay this off in a very short time,” Fluor said.

In its second campaign finance statement, filed with the Orange County Registrar of Voters on Oct. 27, Citizens for Quality Schools listed $125,280 in campaign contributions and $105,631 in expenditures. Fluor and Buchanan said the final totals came to around $157,000 in contributions and $190,000 in expenditures. Measure F was on the special election ballot Nov. 8, winning 56.1% of the vote.

The Registrar of Voters was closed for Thanksgiving weekend and further campaign reports were not available at press time.

Buchanan said the hefty expenses in the last two weeks came largely from paying off campaign consultants, although much of the cost went to mailers as well. In the final days of the campaign, Citizens for Quality Schools sent out different fliers to all four high school zones, each one outlining Measure F projects in specific areas. There was also a mailer, according to Fluor, targeted to absentee voters.

“All the phone bills and everything have been paid,” Buchanan said. “It’s the consultants, the professional types who did the campaign mailings and advising, who are the last to be paid.”