SURREY – Mayor Linda Hepner and her Surrey First spent $1.18 million in securing every seat on city council, according to recently released campaign disclosure statements.
The expense period covers money spent from Jan. 1 to Nov.15, 2014.
The expense eclipses that of Surrey First’s competitors as both of her official opponents combined only spent about one-third of Hepner’s winning party, reported Surrey Leader newspaper.
Mayoral candidate Barinder Rasode’s One Surrey coalition spent $347,000 during in the run up to the election, and Safe Surrey, with Doug McCallum as mayoral hopeful, spent just over $70,000.
The $1.2 million spent by Surrey First is a new high-water mark for the organization, which spent $662,000 in the 2011 election, when it also swept council.
This year’s contributors to the Surrey First campaign read like a who’s who of the development industry, as $902,000 of the campaign war chest was created by corporations.
David Balsor contributed $25,000 to the campaign, while Robert Bosa gave the coalition $21,500. While the Surrey Firefighters Association gave a whopping $32,600 to Surrey First
Out of Indo-Canadians, the biggest contributor was Bhupinder Ajula ($20,000) followed by Gurdev Sandhu ($15,000).
The vast majority of the campaign expenditures ($301,000) went to salaries and wages. Research and polling gobbled $163,000 of the campaign funds, while radio, TV and newspaper ads came to $174,000.
Contributors to Rasode’s One Surrey’s campaign was a mix of union groups, developers and members of the community. Larger donors included Bosa Properties ($14,000), BC Maritime Employers ($12,000), United Steelworkers ($10,000), Value Industries ($10,000), and the Rasode family ($10,000).
The bulk of Rasode’s expenditures went to “other” advertising ($120,000) and research and polling ($50,000).
Former Mayor Doug McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition received its larger donations from Bill’s Developments (Bob Cheema) for $9,600, Crown Distributors ($5,000), and Wendy and Rodney Cameron ($5,000).
Safe Surrey spent almost half of its contributions on salaries and wages ($30,000) and “other” campaign expenses ($15,800).
Surrey First Education (SFE), which swept all the Surrey school board seats, spent $35,000 in its campaign, reported Surrey Leader.
