Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Langley City Council Candidate Spending

Elections BC recently released campaign spending information for last fall’s municipal elections. As you may know, I ran for Langley City Council. Since I ran for council, I was curious about what other Langley City Council candidates spent on their campaigns.

One of the good things about living in a smaller community is that, unlike Surrey or Vancouver where you need significant finances to successfully run, much less money is needed to run a successful campaign in Langley City.

There is something to be said about the power of being an incumbent. Councillor Dave Hall spent $5,010.89, Councillor Jack Arnold spent $2,909.03, and Councillor Gayle Martin spent $1,000. All of their campaigns were self-funded.

Newly elected Councillor Paul Albrecht spent $10,383.41 on his election campaign. About $10,000 was donated by CUPE, USW, and the Fraser Valley Labour Council. Councillor Rudy Storteboom spent $5,733.92 on his campaign. He received $1,000 in donations from people, while he self-financed the remainder of his campaign. New Councillor Val van den Broek spent $3,994.24 on her self-funded campaign.

I came in seventh place, right below Councillor Jack Arnold. I actually had the most amount of donations from people totalling $6,314.80 plus $955 in corporate donations. Other candidates spent up to $6,754.15 on their campaigns. Candidate Sharon Newbery was unique as she fundraised mostly through meal events.

You can view the full details on the Elections BC website.

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