Deena Winter: Mayoral candidates spent $856,029

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The amount of money spent on the mayor’s race this spring was a record-breaker.

Although, each successive campaign tends to break the previous record, simply due to inflation.

According to final campaign spending reports, the two candidates to be Lincoln’s mayor spent a combined $856,029 on the race.

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Mayor Chris Beutler trounced Councilman Ken Svoboda in the money race, spending $525,623 compared to Svoboda’s $330,406.

So it cost Beutler $21.03 per vote to get elected, while Svoboda spent $13.71 per vote.

Despite being so outspent, Svoboda only lost by 889 votes.

Svoboda said going into the race, he expected to raise $275,000, possibly into the 300s if it were a tight race, but said he didn’t expect Beutler to spend a half-million dollars. Especially given Beutler’s promotion of campaign finance reform and spending limits as a state senator.

“For someone who was very concerned about campaign finance reform to spend a half-million in a city election is a little hypocritical,” Svoboda said.

He thinks spending on city races is getting out of control and could keep average people from running.

“If the bar has been raised to that level now, where do we go in four years? That’s a bit scary.”

He estimates he spent four to six hours a day raising funds, rather than campaigning, in the last few weeks of the campaign. He said his campaign realized “almost too late” that Beutler was having no trouble raising money.

Hadley Richters, who was finance director for Beutler’s campaign, said the campaign spent about as much as it expected from the start.

She said the fact Beutler raised and spent a lot of money is “an indicator of the breadth and depth of support” for Beutler. More than 1,500 individuals donated to his campaign, she said.

“They knew he would be the best leader,” she said.

Can Svoboda see himself giving it another shot in four years? Doesn’t sound like it. He says the mayor’s race is kind of a one-time shot.

“If there’s a need for change, somebody will step up. I can’t imagine that it would be me. ... I don’t know that I would want to put myself through it again.”

Spatz, Emery could swing cable votes

Why is Mayor Beutler publicly pushing Time Warner Cable to the negotiating table?

That may be about the only way to get them there.

Yes, the Cable Advisory Board slapped Time Warner in its recent report, recommending the company issue rebates and accusing the company of beta testing new software on unwitting cable subscribers.

Now the report is in the hands of the Lincoln City Council, which doesn’t have a whole lot of power over Time Warner but could use its subpoena power to get data from the cable company. That, and the kind of public pressure that has played out since it ordered the performance evaluation of Time Warner in March.

However, consider this: Back in March, the three Republicans on the council all opposed the performance evaluation, generally believing this to be a private sector issue.

Since then, control of the council has tipped to Republicans, so it’s possible the majority of the council won’t be interested in hassling Time Warner.

The new Republican on the council — and possible swing vote — is John Spatz. But he hasn’t staked out a position on the issue yet.

While he doesn’t think government should tell a business how to operate, he has heard the “overwhelming chorus of complaints” from the community. But he wants to learn more about the issue.

“There is a line that I’m not willing to cross,” he said. “Where that line is, I don’t know.”

The other new council member, Doug Emery, said using the council’s subpoena power would be a last resort. He hopes an agreement can be reached between the mayor and Time Warner.

Stay tuned.

From the archives

In 1977, a group of 30 artists, merchants and other interested people formed an association to rejuvenate Lincoln’s Haymarket area, which at the time was defined as “on the end of the central business district.”

Were you aware?

The county pays a contractor $45 “per collection” to remove dead animals from county roads. They pay $55 per “special collection,” which is defined as an animal that weighs more than 250 pounds.

He said it

“Don’t blame the mail.” — Councilman Doug Emery, after a city employee apologized to a citizen, saying he couldn’t explain why a city notice never reached the man’s mailbox. Emery is the former Lincoln postmaster.

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.