Chamber committee quiet on its financial resources
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE — A political action committee created specifically to change the face of the City Council is not officially raising money for its chosen candidates.
Instead, chamber officials are encouraging Santa Monica business owners to donate to the campaigns of four people who have been endorsed by the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce Issues Committee, which was set up earlier this year to address concerns in the community during the campaign season.
“It’s better to direct the money directly to the candidates,” said Tom Larmore, treasurer of the issues committee. “We are helping them raise money for themselves.”
If the chamber was to directly fundraise for candidates, it would have to set up a separate political action committee. But chamber officials decided it was-n’t worth doing that since most people are donating directly to the four candidates who won the business group’s endorsement.
By law, candidates are not allowed to collect more than $250 from any one individual. So the most a person supporting the four chamber picks could donate is $1,000 — $250 for each candidate. Donating to a specific candidate committee would only allow an individual to donate another $250 to the chamber cause.
“The question is whether you could find that many people who donate $1,250 anyway,” Larmore said. “There are some, but not a lot.”
The idea is that through encouragement of political action committee members and word of mouth amongst the local business community, donations will be given to chamber-endorsed candidates Bobby Shriver, Matt Dinolfo, Kathryn Morea and Herb Katz, so they can spend the money however they see fit.
“The chamber is over 1,000 businesses, and they are able to spread the word much better,” Larmore said. “(The candidates) can spend it better themselves and run their own campaign.”
Dinolfo, who has gotten thousands of dollars from chamber members, said he’s pleased with the chamber’s strategy, despite that he thought the political action committee would send out mailers promoting its slate of candidates.
“I assumed they would raise money and do slate mailers, but for whatever reason they didn’t,” Dinolfo said. “That’s fine because I’ve always been an independent and I’m happy to have their endorsement.
“When you are asked to dinner, you don’t ask what’s for dinner,” he added. “Their PAC is an independent PAC, and how they run it and strategize is their business.”
Chamber members also may volunteer their time and effort through phone banking and precinct walking.
“They are all cumulative effects,” Dinolfo said. “It’s not just about mail.”
The chamber has previously been involved in election campaigns but never to the level it is this year. Chamber officials have encouraged members to donate to individual campaigns before, but have never officially endorsed anyone through a political action committee.
“I think it’s much more focused,” Dinolfo said. “Their message is focused.”
The effectiveness of a strategy that includes the notion of endorsements carrying more weight than what was done in the past remains to be seen. But so far, it seems to be working. Chamber members are donating to the candidates — Katz has received thousands of dollars from several local businesses, as well as chamber board members.
Although it’s not raising money for candidates, the issues committee has raised enough money to send out three mailers in recent months, which have been billed as part of an educational campaign aiming to broaden community input on a range of issues.
The first full-color mailer, which was sent out over the July Fourth holiday weekend, features a picture of Santa Monica Pier and the beach on one side, and reads, “This is the Santa Monica we love.” The other side says, “This is what we’ve got” and shows clippings from various news reports about homelessness, traffic and City Hall. It concludes with “Santa Monica deserves better.”
Another mailer has a picture of a crowded beach with people circled with the words “us” and “them.” The back of the mailer says, “Renter vs. homeowner? Business vs. residents? No, there’s only one Santa Monica and we’re all in this together.” News clippings on the back also suggest that the current City Council has its own agenda, which comes at the expense of residents’ quality of life.
“Our role was to raise issues that we thought were important to the community,” Larmore said.
Larmore declined to say how much the issues committee has in its war chest. He said he’s not comfortable speculating on what the committee might do before the election, which is three weeks away. The committee is required to file financial disclosure forms with the state in January.
In July, chamber officials said they had raised between $40,000 and $50,000 to spend on the mailers. The first mailer cost about $15,000 and was sent to about 20,000 households.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 8, 2004. Read the original PDF.