Mayor Jonathan Cote outspent all council and mayoral candidates in the 2018 civic election campaign – with a first-time council candidate who topped the polls coming next.
The incumbent mayor spent $22,821, outspending his three challengers by a wide margin: Nikki Binns, $1,256, Harm Woldring, $825, and Jimmie Bell, $0.
Cote spent the bulk of his funds on newspaper ads, signs and brochures.
Cote, leader of the Team Cote group of candidates for city council and school board who were endorsed by the New Westminster and District Labour Council – and members of his team shared a number of campaign expenses. All members of Team Cote were elected.
On Tuesday, Elections BC released the 2018 General Local Elections disclosure statements of candidates, elector organizations and third-party advertising sponsors for public inspection. Elections BC has begun reviewing the statements for compliance to the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act.
Many of the candidates completed election financing forms in different ways, so the Record combined the election period expenses (Jan. 1 to Sept. 21, 2018) and the campaign period expenses (Sept. 22 to Oct. 20, 2018) to determine how much money candidates spent. The spending limit for Cote during the campaign period was $47,410.40, based on the city’s population. For council candidates, it’s $23,999.84. Elections BC says there is no spending limit during the election period.
Since they are not an official electors group, members of Team Cote filed individual disclosure statements.
First-time council candidate Nadine Nakagawa topped the polls and outspent all council candidates with her expenses of $14,613. Incumbent Mary Trentadue followed at $12,562, with first-time candidate Chinu Das close behind at $12,388. Rounding out the list for Team Cote were three incumbents – Patrick Johnstone ($10,635); Chuck Puchmayr ($10,024) and Jaimie McEvoy ($5,859).
Other than McEvoy, all members of Team Cote spent more than the four council candidates running for the New Westminster Progressive Electors Coalition Society: Daniel Fontaine, Paul McNamara, Ellen Vaillancourt and Bryn Ward. The electors group spent $31,413 in its bid to win seats on city council. That spending included $7,288 in the election period and $6,031 for each of the candidates during the campaign period.
The New West Progressives reported a surplus of $10,261 at the end of the campaign. The electors group had received a total of $43,577 in contributions.
Not surprisingly, independent candidates spent the least amounts of money on their campaigns: Troy Hunter, $2,088; Angela Sealy, $1,552; and Benny Ogden, $655.
The lowest spender of the 2018 civic election campaign? Like mayoral candidate Jimmie Bell, council candidate Mike Ireland didn’t spend a cent on his bid for a seat on city council.
All of the financial disclosure statements can be found at www.elections.bc.ca.
