EDITORIAL:Rising funding raises eyebrows and questions

It is perfectly legal.

It is probably necessary.

But that does not mean that raising $100,000 in a city council campaign will fail to raise eyebrows.

In Newport Beach’s crowded District 1 race, planning commissioner Michael Henn has done just that. According to the latest financial statements filed on Thursday, Henn has topped all previous council candidates by raising an eye-popping $103,852. Perhaps even more amazing, Henn hasn’t even spent the most in his race. Opponent Jack Wu has spent $53,590 and Marcia Dossey has spent $52,080.

In another Newport Beach race, Councilwoman Leslie Daigle has raised $90,134 and spent a remarkable $65,482. Across the border in Costa Mesa, Mayor Allan Mansoor is tops in money raised, with $58,944, and spent, with $43,168. Interestingly enough, the races that have to reach the most voters — those for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Trustees — generally have the least money, although the top fundraiser, Loretta Zimmerman, has managed to pull in $35,565.

And it all is perfectly legal. And it all is probably necessary. But it does not change the fact that the amount of money needed to run successful council campaigns in Newport-Mesa is staggeringly high and seemingly growing steadily. (And that does not even take into consideration the $255,000 raised in opposition to Newport’s Measure X, the Greenlight II initiative.)

A few candidates are not breaking the bank. Newport Beach City Councilman Dick Nichols has raised just $7,300. Robert Schoonmaker, who is challenging Newport City Councilman Ed Selich, is beneath the $1,000 mark. Costa Mesa candidate Chris Bunyan has raised $2,750. (Newport Beach Mayor Don Webb, running unopposed, has spent only $1,300.) Their fortunes come Nov. 8 will be instructive, especially Nichols’. If, as an incumbent, he is unable to mount a successful campaign on the relative cheap, we may be able to write off in the future any campaign — in Newport Beach, at least — that isn’t raising and spending $30,000 or $40,000. That minimum just may be an absolute necessity.

Is this amount of political money worrisome or troubling? Perhaps. It has to be daunting to first-time candidates, though Dossey has proven that first-timers can compete. At Thursday’s third annual Mess Night in Newport Beach, the hundreds of people in attendance donated more than $50,000 to the 1st Battallion, 1st Marines that the city has adopted. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are donated to our schools — sometimes millions. We have pools and libraries that exist only because of generous, and big, donations.

Put in perspective, is $100,000 to run a council race so much?

Yes, it does seem to be. But it also is just the way things are.