The winner in last September's Port Moody council byelection spent almost $7 for every vote that was cast for him.
Hunter Madsen won the race amongst eight candidates to fill the seat vacated by Rick Glumac, who was elected in May as the MLA for Port Moody-Coquitlam. Madsen received 1,277 votes, more than double the number cast for his nearest competitor, Karen Rockwell, who picked up 530 votes.
According to disclosure documents released Tuesday by Elections BC, Madsen spent $8,892.22 on his election campaign. That was offset by $9,005,11 in contributions, all from individuals.
Madsen biggest contributor was his partner, Marcus Madsen, while another member of Port Moody city council, Rob Vagramov, kicked in $1,815 worth of professional services for editing a video of Madsen’s campaign announcement as well as a Facebook ad.
Rockwell, a former councillor who was seeking a return to civic politics, was the campaign’s biggest spender. Her unsuccessful effort cost $11,680.19. She received $9,780.20 in contributions, including $4,655.37 from individuals, $3,124.83 from unions and $1,500 from corporations. The balance was covered by a burger-and-beer fundraiser held last August.
The bulk of Rockwell’s union support came from Local 378 of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees (Move Up) in Burnaby, which contributed $2174.83 to her campaign, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 825, which represents PoMo city workers and kicked in $950 in addition to endorsing the candidate. Rockwell’s corporate backing came from Aspen Planers Ltd., a lumber mill in Surrey that contributed $1,000, and Bold Properties, which kicked in $500.
The byelection’s biggest spender in terms of cost per vote was fourth-place finisher Cathy Cena. She spent $8,752.64 but received only 216 votes — that’s $40.52 per vote.
All of her expenses were covered by contributors — $5,252.64 from individuals and the rest from corporations, including $1,500 from Onni Group, $1,000 from Flavelle Oceanfront Development, $500 from Brix Development and another $500 from Allaire Construction.
The campaign’s thriftiest candidate was Sager Jan, who declared no expenses and no contributions. He finished last, with 33 votes.
In total, the eight candidates spent $33,223.33 to win 2,696 votes cast by a little less than 12% of eligible voters in Port Moody. That works out to $12.32 per vote.
