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Opinion: Little money still adds up to big totals

It’s ironic that the first civic election contested in Delta under new regulations aimed at removing big money from campaigns set records for both contributions and expenses.
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The first civic election contested in Delta under new regulations aimed at removing big money from campaigns set records for both contributions and expenses.

It’s ironic that the first civic election contested in Delta under new regulations aimed at removing big money from campaigns set records for both contributions and expenses.

I think it’s safe to chalk up the higher totals to a spirited three-way race for the mayor’s chair as the vast majority of money was raised $1,200 at a time, the maximum individuals were allowed to donate to a candidate or slate under the new rules.

Former mayor Lois Jackson’s Delta Independent Voters Association had long led the pack when it came to campaign donations, topping the list, and usually by a wide margin, in 2008 ($84,000), 2011 ($109,000) and 2014 ($155,000), but Mayor George Harvie’s Achieving for Delta blew that out of the water this time around.

His slate, which won five of the seven seats on Delta council, collected a whopping $291,000, but even Sylvia Bishop’s Team Delta slate, which didn’t get a single candidate elected, pulled in a not so shabby $167,000. Jim Cessford’s Independents Working For You collected a hair under $125,000, which in any other election would have been a very healthy total, but proved to be a distant third last fall.

The bulk of donations to Harvie’s slate came in $1,200 at a time, although $65,000 of the total was raised in the fall of 2017, just days before limits came into force and corporate donations were outlawed. These big corporate donations beat the deadline so they’re all above board, but they do raise a couple of issues.

The first is that Harvie was still Delta’s chief administrative officer at the time and not declared, at least publicly, as a candidate, which I’m assuming is what prompted a closed door meeting that led to his abrupt departure from city hall. The second issue revolves around what the big donors (read developers) will want in return, particularly given that donations to municipal campaigns don’t qualify for tax credits. Then again, maybe they just really like Harvie’s Delta Families First initiative.

As much as new rules have now taken those with deep pockets out of civic races, last October’s election showed that big money, even if it’s collected a little at a time, is needed as much as ever to compete in an increasingly high stakes game.