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Berkeley candidates for public office will raise and borrow nearly $500,000 this year, according to campaign finance records. 

Mayor Shirley Dean and challenger Tom Bates have raised roughly $300,000, making their quests for Berkeley’s highest office the most expensive race this year. 

As of the last official filing deadline on Oct. 19, Dean held a roughly $9,000 fundraising edge, $142,293 to $133,963. Both candidates have taken in thousands of dollars in additional contributions since then. 

The totals put this year’s race on par with the last two mayoral contests. In 1994, according to the city clerk’s office, Dean and opponent Donald Jelinek raised about $390,000, including funds for a runoff. In 1998, Dean and Jelinek faced off again, raising roughly $320,000. 

Fundraising has been the source of heavy sniping between the mayoral camps, with both sides filing charges of campaign finance improprieties against the other. The city’s Fair Campaign Practices Commission has absolved Bates of all charges but found that Dean’s 1998 campaign made a $3,000 accounting error. Dean has since corrected the error. 

The two sides have also raised questions about their opponents’ donors. Rent Board Commissioner Paul Hogarth, who supports Bates, has attacked Dean for taking some $20,000 from landlords and real estate interests. The Dean campaign, in turn, has criticized Bates for taking money from politicians outside Berkeley. 

Of this year’s City Council races, the contest for the 8th District’s open seat, vacated by retiring Councilmember Polly Armstrong, has been the most costly. As of Oct. 19, the four candidates had raised a cumulative $80,000, including more than $14,000 of their own money.  

Planning Commissioner Gordon Wozniak led the pack in the 8th District at $40,562, none of it personal funds. UC Berkeley graduate student Andy Katz followed with $25,225, including $8,250 of his own money, and human rights consultant Anne Wagley had $14,915, including $6,000 in personal funds. Air conditioning mechanic Carlos Estrada had not raised any money as of his last filing. 

Fundraising has taken its place alongside issues like rent control, traffic and safety in the 8th District race as a hot topic of debate. Wozniak said his significant fundraising edge shows the depth of his support in the district, which stretches south of the UC Berkeley campus. 

He said the heavy personal loans that Katz and Wagley made to their own campaigns and the significant number of contributions his rivals secured from outside the district indicate a lack of grassroots support. 

But Wagley, who has tried to position herself outside the traditional “moderate” and “progressive” camps in Berkeley politics, charged that Wozniak had an edge because he inherited the moderate fundraising “machine” from the retiring Armstrong. 

“That’s just not true,” Wozniak replied. “I’ve lived in the district for 30-some years. I have a lot of friends and neighbors.” 

In the 4th District, progressive incumbent Dona Spring led in fundraising as of the Oct. 19 filing, with $17,138, none of it personal money. Moderate-backed challenger Bob Migdal was second with $13,277, including $2,768 in personal funds. Candidate LA Wood had $12,990, nearly all of it – $11,900 – his own money. 

In the 7th District, progressive incumbent Kriss Worthington had out-raised challenger Micki Weinberg, a UC Berkeley student, $20,559 to $7,656 as of the last filing deadline. 

In the 1st District, progressive Councilmember Linda Maio had raised $850 as of Oct. 19. Her one-named challenger, Rhiannon, had raised nothing. 

In the six-candidate Board of Education race, school board President Shirley Issel led the way with $24,289 as of the Oct. 19 filing deadline, including $8,909 in personal funds. 

Candidate Sean Dugar, 18, who graduated from Berkeley High School last summer, had raised $8,105 by Oct. 19, including $6,500 in personal funds. He said Friday that he was going to add $7,000 more of his own money to help pay for mailers. 

Dugar said he inherited the money. 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net