The ballots have arrived in voters’ homes and local candidates are making that final push to get votes.
Political signs populate yards, and fliers are coming in the mail.
The money for that has to come from somewhere.
Each candidate for Bellevue City Council has received hundreds of donations from individuals and companies, all under the watchful eye of the state’s Public Disclosure Commission.
PDC spokeswoman Lori Anderson said individual campaign donations are capped at $800 each for the primary and general election. Candidates are able to spend as much as they want of their own money on their campaigns, but if they’d like to recoup any of that money later on, they may reclaim only $4,700.
Political Action Committees (PACs) can raise as much money as they want, but they are still limited to a maximum donation to each candidate. However, they are allowed to spend as much as they want on behalf of a candidate or group of candidates as long as they don’t coordinate with the candidate.
Each Bellevue City Council candidate has reported receiving donations from PACs, and a number of PACs have reported independent spending on behalf of candidates.
The Eastside Leadership Committee received a total of $69,000 from three donors – Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman, a supporter of council candidates Patti Mann, Aaron Laing and Michelle Hilhorst; Issaquah developer Skip Rowley and Robert Wallace, whose son, Kevin, serves as a councilmember.
On the other side, Bellevue Firefighters, Fuse Washington and light-rail advocate Move Bellevue Forward have spent more than $32,000 to help John Stokes, Claudia Balducci and John Chelminiak.
Unlike the $800 candidate limits, donors can give as much as they want to a PAC in the early days of a campaign. But within three weeks of elections, donors may only give $5,000 to a PAC, a reason some PACs form just before the three-week deadline.
Once a donation is received, a candidate has five days to deposit it, Anderson said. They then have to fill out a C3 form that lists the name of the contributor, their address and how much money they gave.
People interested in checking on donations can visit the PDC website (www.pdc.wa.gov/). Then click on search database, and at that point people can see records for committees and individual candidates. For Bellevue and King County Councils, look for the “local” tab and click through.
Top donations to candidates
(as of Oct. 26 when the Bellevue Reporter checked the PDC website)
Position 1
Aaron Laing
Raised – $66,609.59
Spent – $44,142.21
Top Donors
700 112th LLC – $800
Affordable Housing Council – $800
Bellevue Club – $800
Gregg Bennett – $800
Kemper Freeman – two $800 donations
Betty Freeman – two $800 donations
Mayuri Foods and Video Inc. – $800
Janine Florence – $800
Washington Association of Realtors PAC – $800
Morgani Partners Inc. – $800
John Stokes
Raised – $40,744.84
Spent – $13,426.77
Top Donors
Amalgamted Transit Union – $800
Bellevue Club – $800
Bellevue Fire Pac – $800
Patrick Callahan – $800
CH2M Hill – $800
John Su – $800
Wen Su – $800
Ron Sher – $800
Ina Tateuchi – $800
Washington Conservation Voters Action Fund – $800
Katherine Binder – $800
Position 3
John Chelminiak
Raised – $45,008.21
Spent – $7,579.46
Top donors
Bellevue Fire Fighters – $800
CH2M Hill – $800
Nat Franklin – $800
HNTB Holdings – $800 (Kansas City)
Ron Sher – $800
John Su – $800
Su Development – $800
Washington Conservation Voters Action Fund – $800
Comcast – $500 (Philadelphia)
Jon Runstead – $500
Michelle Hilhorst
Raised – $14,462.96
Spent – $7,082.20
Top Donors
AT&T – $800
Kemper Holdings – $800
Skip Rowley – $800
John Stanton – $800
Don Anderson – $500
Sheila Anderson – $500
Boma PAC of Washington State – $500
Kemper Freeman – $400
Betty Freeman – $400
Republic Services Inc. (Phoenix) – 400
Position 5
Claudia Balducci
Raised – 69,809.02
Spent – $41,278.68
Top donors
Christopher Balducci – $800
James Balducci – $800
Bellevue Club – $800
Bellevue Fire Fighters – $800
Hal Ferris – $800
HNTB Holdings Ltd. Political Action Committee (Kansas City, Mo.) – $800
King County Labor Council Committee – $800
Shaula Massena – $800
Ron Sher – $800
Bill Thurston – $800
Patti Mann
Raised – $36,243.00
Spent – $14,225.37
Top Donors
700 112th LLC – $800
Greg Bennett – $1,600
Berry Freeman – $800
Kemper Freeman – $800
John Stanton – $800
Boma Pac of Washington State – $500
Joan Wallace – $500
Kevin Wallace – $500
Robert Wallace – $500
John Otter – $500
