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Published on 02/05/1996 All articles from this issue

Final campaign finance tallies show less was more

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

Sometimes less is more.

Consider the expenses of the six candidates who ran in the Nov. 7, 1995, election for the three seats on the Los Altos City Council, the final statements of which were filed Jan. 31.

Francis La Poll, who raised the least amount of money, $7,871 (see chart below) garnered the most votes.

Kris Casto, who spent the least amount of money, $8,871, received the second largest number of votes.

In this election, there was not necessarily a correlation between money raised and votes received.

Lou Becker, who placed third with a small margin, raised the most, $12,676, and spent the most, $12,676.

Neither of the other two candidates who raised more than $10,000, Gloria Bauer with $12,841, and Janet Dobson with $10,281, won a seat on the council.

La Poll raised less than most of the other candidates, but he spent more than everyone except Becker, and finished with an outstanding debt of $5,391. Some of that debt is offset with his ending cash balance of $1,726. But money is still owed.

"I'm liable for the debt," La Poll said. "We will have one or more fund raisers to take care of the debt."

As the father of four small children, with diaper and formula costs and the other expenses of raising children, he said, "We can't afford to put in all that money and write it off."

Many of the other candidates did just that.

Bauer loaned herself $4,000. Becker donated $2,267 to his own campaign, a combination of cash and a loan he forgave. Casto gave $1,397 to her campaign, partly a gift from her husband and partly a loan to herself. Dobson's husband contributed $500 to his wife's campaign and Norton forgave a $756 loan from himself. Bob Gray, in his 1993 election, forgave a $313 loan from his wife and a $999 loan from himself.

As far as La Poll's debt, "We're whittling away at it," he said. "We'll get there."