Campaign Finance Disclosures Bring New Revelations

By Jim Shilander

The latest round of City Council campaign disclosure forms shed some additional light about who’s backing which candidate.

The campaign has largely evolved into two teams of two candidates facing off, each with one current council member and a younger challenger, with Jim Dahl running alongside Mike Mortenson, and Robert “Bob” Baker and Chris Hamm.

Retired businessman David Clegg has staked out the independent position but is not spending as much on his campaign. Clegg signed a form before the last filing deadline stating that he anticipated spending less than $1,000 on his campaign. The new disclosures, which cover only the month of October, were filed by the remaining four candidates last week.

Hamm and Baker have received very different types of support during the campaign. Baker, who had previously loaned his campaign $31,500, loaned himself an additional $8,000. Baker has spent an additional $7,763 at Freeman Public Affairs, a campaign-consulting firm in Torrance. He has also spent $2,500 at a phone bank in Glendora.

Hamm received an additional $5,665 in non-monetary contributions, including signs, mailers and flyers from Pacific Corporate Consultants of San Juan Capistrano, which is run by former City Council candidate Charles Mann. Former Mayor and Councilmember Wayne Eggleston is also listed as having paid for “print ads.” Hamm has also received a $1,500 contribution from the Orange County Professional Firefighter’s Political Action Committee. Hamm is a professional firefighter.

Mortenson and Dahl’s contributions have also followed a similar pattern to the previous filing.

Dahl received $7000 form “Business for a Better San Clemente.” The address of the organization is the same for the San Clemente Chamber of Commerce.

Dahl has also received  $400 from Planning Commission member Michael Kaupp and an additional $2,000 from a California Realtors Political Action Committee, which had donated the same amount previously.

Mortenson has received $100 contributions from former Mayor Joseph Anderson, as well as the wife of current Mayor Jim Evert. His expenses listed include $8,731 to Bieber Communications, a political firm located in Santa Ana. Mortenson’s campaign has also paid $2,954 in postage in the last month.