Cost of Council Elections
by Larry Gilbert

In my Feb 6 post I referenced the cost of being in the political arena as a candidate for local city councils. That cost will vary based on how competitive the election cycle is. If not mistaken, I recall a time when the city of Laguna Hills did not conduct an election as there were no challengers to the incumbents that year.

To recap the cost per vote from my prior report, Mission Viejo Councilwoman Cathy Schlicht was re-elected having spent $1.82 per vote received. Frank Ury spent $2.61 per vote in his being re-elected. Challenger Wendy Buchnum, who spent the most in her losing bid, ended up spending $3.61 per vote.

Now let’s check the same results for Lake Forest, our neighbor city to the north where two challengers were elected and incumbent Marcia Rudolph was defeated. Incumbent Mark Tettemer chose not to run in that election, which raises another point for consideration. It is virtually impossible to remove a sitting member of these city councils, which opens the door for challengers spending less per vote. However, if your current council members have failed to be effective leaders, they can be removed at the ballot box. The proof was our local activists’ effort in 2002 when we removed both our sitting mayor and mayor pro tem in that revolution in Mission Viejo as highlighted by Steve Greenhut in an OC Register Editorial.

Back to Lake Forest with two open seats where Adam Nick came in first with 10,279 votes. He also spent the most money as reported in the Register at $59,450. According to my calculations Adam spent a whopping $5.78 per vote. Coming in second was Dwight Robinson having spent $38,296. Based on receiving 9,381 votes, Dwight was elected having spent $4.08 per vote.

Finishing third was Terry Anderson who spent $26,661 while getting 7,183 votes. There is an irony here. Terry lost having spent $3.71 per vote while Wendy Buchnum lost in Mission Viejo after spending $3.61 per vote.

Lake Forest Councilwoman Marcia Rudolph was defeated in her effort to be re-elected. According to the O.C. Register, Marcia spent $6,999 in this campaign and received only 5,675 votes. So while her investment per vote was only $1.23, it is almost impossible to win in challenged local races where the opposition has superior funding and grass roots on the streets.