Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie spent more than $180,000 on his campaign to be re-elected to an eighth term in office.
This compares to RITE mayoralty candidate John Roston, whose slate spent about $45,000 to campaign for him and four other candidates, according to documents filed with Elections BC.
Brodie won 66 per cent of the vote in the Oct. 15 municipal election, beating out two challengers: Roston, who got about 27 per cent of the vote, and Burnaby resident Wei Ping Chen.
RITE Richmond spent $44,645 on its campaign, which included, in addition to Roston, four candidates for city council: Carol Day and Michael Wolfe, who were re-elected, Laura Gillanders, who was elected for the first time, and Jerome Dickey, who was unsuccessful in his bid for a council seat.
This works out to just under $9,000 on each candidate.
In the meantime, One Richmond, which was a coalition between long-time city councillor Bill McNulty and Alexa Loo, seeking her third term, spent all together about $175,000 on their campaign. Loo’s portion was about $58,500 and McNulty’s was about $116,000.
The $116,285 that McNulty listed in his campaign finance forms included a transfer to One Richmond of almost $49,000. However, One Richmond only spent $2,000 on the campaign, according to filed documents.
The Richmond Community Coalition (RCC), Coun. Chak Au’s slate, spent almost $79,000, running three candidates, Au, Sheldon Starrett and Rahim Othman and four school trustee candidates.
On average, the RCC slate spent about $11,271 on each candidate.
The independent candidates who spent the most were Elsa Wong, who spent almost $64,000, and Bill Han who spent about $51,000.
There were three new groupings – or slates – of candidates during the election: Richmond Rise, One Richmond and Richmond United.
Former city councillor Derek Dang and former provincial solicitor general Kash Heed ran under the Richmond Rise banner, spending about $52,000 on their campaign, about $26,000 on each candidate on average.
Heed was elected to city council while Dang was the first runner-up.
Richmond Citizens’ Association (RCA) spent $30,646 on its campaign but failed to elect any candidates for the first time in decades.
RCA, which long-time councillor Harold Steves ran with in many elections, ran four candidates, Jack Trovato, Keefer Pelech, Fipe Wong and Mark Lee. (Steves didn’t run for re-election this year.)
Olympic racewalker Evan Dunfee, who came in 10th place after Dang, spent a little more than $8,000 on his campaign.
Council candidate Chai Chung, who didn't win a seat, didn't submit her campaign finance disclosure forms to Elections BC by its original deadline. The date for late filing, with a late filing fee of $500, is Feb. 13.
Brodie’s election spending was split into the election period and the campaign period, during which spending was limited to $138,932. (Elections BC sets limits during the campaign period, Sept. 17 to Oct. 15, based on the municipality’s population and the position sought.)
Brodie had a balance of $58,412 in his campaign account after the election.
Chen, who was the third mayoralty candidate, listed Burnaby as his home address and garnered five per cent.
According to his financial disclosure forms, he didn’t spend any money on the campaign.
Listed below are each candidate’s expenses. For those candidates who ran as part of a slate, thereby declaring their own personal expenses as zero, their expenses are listed below as a portion of their slate’s total expenses.
Total election expenses for mayoralty candidates:
Malcolm Brodie (independent): $181,725
John Roston (RITE): $8,929**
Wei Ping Chen: $0
Total election expenses for elected councillor candidates:
Bill McNulty (One Richmond): $116,285
Alexa Loo (One Richmond): $58,529
Kash Heed (Richmond Rise): $26,096
Andy Hobbs (Richmond United): $24,673
Chak Au (RCC): $11,271
Carol Day (RITE): $8,929
Michael Wolfe (RITE): $8,929
Laura Gillanders (RITE): $8,929
Total expenses for unelected candidates:
Elsa Wong (independent): $63,492
Bill Han (independent): $51,004
Derek Dang (Richmond Rise): $26,096
Melissa Zhang (Richmond United): $24,673
Eric Yung (Richmond United): $24,673
Sheldon Starrett (RCC): $11,271
Rahim Othman (RCC): $11,271
Jerome Dickey (RITE): $8,929
Adil Awan (independent): $7,874
Jack Trovato (RCA): $7,811
Mark Lee (RCA): $7,811
Keefer Pelech (RCA): $7,811
Fipe Wong (RCA): $7,811
Evan Dunfee (independent): $7,559
Jasmine Piao (independent): $5,642
Sunny Ho (independent): $1,948
Mohamud Ali Farah (independent): $539
Dennis Page (independent): $0
Chai Chung (independent): (paperwork not filed)
