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Losing candidate set record for spending in council race
by Robb Fulcher
Fred Huebscher raised $45,232 and spent $38,652 in his unsuccessful race for a city council seat last November, according to campaign disclosure documents filed Monday. Huebscher obliterated previous records for spending in a Hermosa council race.
"Here, $10,000 is high," Deputy City Clerk Naoma Valdez said Tuesday.
Some older election records are kept in deep storage and were not immediately available, but Valdez, who has been involved in municipal balloting for 40 years, said the largest previous expenditures fell in the $17,000 range. Current Councilman John Bowler and candidate Peter Mangurian were the big spenders.
"And we were surprised when we saw those numbers," Valdez said about Bowler and Mangurian's spending.
The documents filed at this week's final, state-mandated deadline reflect campaign contributions and expenditures made after Oct. 16, when the previous filing period ended.
In the Nov. 2 election, Huebscher finished fourth by one vote in a race for two open council seats, which were won by Kathy Dunbabin and incumbent Sam Edgerton.
About $31,000 of Huebscher's money came as a loan from the candidate to himself.
During the final filing period Huebscher received six individual contributions of $249, the maximum amount allowed by city ordinance. Giving the max were Berridge Hermosa LCC, Max Besler of San Diego, David L. Gould Co. of Los Angeles, Larry Levine and Associates of Sherman Oaks, Caryn Viterbi of Del Mar, and John Engelmann of Edmonton, Alberta.
In the winners' column, Dunbabin raised $10,518 and spent $9,372. Documents from Edgerton and a number of other candidates were not on file at the city clerk's office before press time.
In the city treasurer's race, incumbent John Workman raised $10, 815 and spent $7,155 in a successful defense of his seat against former Councilman Bob Benz, who previously filed papers stating that he would spend less than $1,000 in his campaign.
Save the tax
Citizens to Protect the UUT raised $26,332 and spent $27,965 in a successful effort to defeat Measure D and preserve the 6 percent utility users tax. Expenses can outstrip contributions when a campaign goes into debt, or loans to the campaign are forgiven.
Teamsters Local 911 contributed $3,500 to fight the ballot measure. Newman Hospitality Inc. gave $1,300, Resort Seaview Hermosa Beach gave $1,000 and City Treasurer John Workman gave $250.
The city's limit on contributions applies only to the campaigns of individual candidates for office.
Contributing $249 apiece were three downtown restaurants, Sangria, Aloha Sharkeez and Patrick Malloy's.
No on Sam
A committee formed to oppose Edgerton's reelection raised $5,507 and spent $7,839.
The anti-Edgerton group, called the Committee for Accountability on the Hermosa Beach City Council, listed as co-treasurers John Edwards and anti-oil drilling activist Rosamond Fogg.
The group bought TV advertising and mailed out late-campaign postcards with a photo which, according to the photographer, shows Edgerton pretending to urinate on another candidate's campaign sign on election night three years ago.
Contributors to the anti-Edgerton effort included previous council candidate James Dewey with $500, Edwards with $396, JCC Homes with $300, City Hall watcher James Lissner with $200, and Janet Taranto with $100. Fogg contributed $428 worth of services by producing a campaign mailer. ER