Jarl Turner of Turner Consulting provided a heads up that County Supervisorial candidate Carl Hilliard recently donated $100,000 of personal funds to his campaign coffers, thus triggering the ability for his competitors to exceed the usual maximum limit of $500 from individual donors.
The Registrar of Voters office confirms the information, indicating a $100,000 donation from Hilliard to his campaign committee on April 19. This follows previous personal donations of about $40,000 from the candidate.
Hilliard, the mayor of Del Mar, is vying against Solana Beach Councilmember Dave Roberts and longtime legislative aide Steve Danon in the race to succeed retiring County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price.
“This certainly lends Hilliard a greater profile in the race,” said Turner, “but the key question is the amount of his overhead. Danon will have an edge as far as number of donors, now without individual contribution limits.”
Élise Dufresne, a consultant to Danon, said, “This is an attempt by a pay-to-play candidate to buy a seat in County government. Ironically, it’s actually good news for Steve. Carl has grossly mismanaged his campaign’s finances and has put this money in simply to pay his accrued debt. On the other hand, this allows Steve to go back to his wide contributor base and raise significantly more funds, giving him an even greater advantage in June.”
The Hilliard campaign also weighed in, after the above was initially posted. “Unlike Steve Danon who has already sold himself to special interests and money bundlers and is running full-time while on the federal payroll, Carl Hilliard is giving back to the community and dedicating his own time and resources to a race that needs a sensible, fiscally-responsible alternative to a slick political bureaucrat, Danon, and a tax-a-holic, Dave Roberts,” said K.B. Forbes, campaign manager for Hilliard. “We upset the entrenched special interests and their paid stooges but we’re moving forward with a strong, viable, and winning campaign.”
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Update Wednesday: It came to my attention today that the U-T San Diego’s Christopher Cadelago tweeted the Hilliard info on Monday, the day prior to my post above…
@ccadelago Del Mar Mayor Carl Hilliard, a candidate for county supervisor, has contributed another $100K to his campaign, lifting the cap for rivals.
Although the U-T didn’t have a story posted on the subject, I do want to acknowledge that it appears Chris was the first to have the news out, via Twitter.