Wendy Greuel Edges Eric Garcetti In Fundraising, Has More Cash In Campaign's Final Two Weeks

By Gene Maddaus Fri., Feb. 22 2013 at 9:30 AM

Garcetti and Greuel

Update below: Kevin James' super PAC runs out of steam.

Controller Wendy Greuel raised more money over the last month than Councilman Eric Garcetti, her top rival in the race for L.A. mayor, and has more cash in the bank with less than two weeks to go before the March 5 primary.

Greuel reported raising $473,582 from Jan. 20 through Feb. 16, narrowly edging out Garcetti, who reported bringing in $452,819.

Garcetti heavily outspent Greuel over the same period, burning through $2.49 million to Greuel's $1.78 million. Garcetti is seeking to keep pace with IBEW Local 18 and its allies, which have also spent heavily on Greuel's behalf.

As of last Saturday, Garcetti had $1.5 million in the bank. Greuel had $1.67 million. The candidates must spend all of their cash by March 5, because money raised during the primary cannot be carried over to the May 21 general election.

A source familiar with ad spending estimated that Greuel and her allies were outspending Garcetti on broadcast TV this week by roughly $750,000 to $600,000. However, the independent committees supporting Greuel must pay a higher rate for TV time than the candidates themselves, which neutralizes much, if not all, of her advantage in terms of actual TV time.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, meanwhile, raised $67,682 over the fundraising period, and spent $809,000, leaving her with $483,000 in the bank.

One other note for the truly numbers-obsessed: The Greuel campaign said that its filing posted on the L.A. City Ethics Commission website was incorrect in two respects. The report lists a much higher figure for the campaign's expenditures over the period -- $2.72 million -- and a much lower figure for cash in the bank -- $726,000. The campaign said the error was the result of double-counting subvendor payments for TV ad time as separate payments.

Fundraising figures were not immediately available for the two other contenders -- Kevin James and Emanuel Pleitez -- nor for the independent committees involved in the campaign.

Update, Friday morning: Looks like Better Way L.A., the independent committee backing Kevin James, is running out of gas. The committee reported raising just $9,700 over the last month. That puts its total for the campaign at $709,700 -- just a bit shy of the $4 million the committee was hoping to raise last fall.

Kevin James actually outpaced the independent committee for the period, raising $51,973. James has $25,000 in the bank. The independent committee has about $64,000 -- which means that James should be looking to attract a lot of free media attention over the last 10 days of the campaign.

Pleitez reported raising $19,707, and has $146,000 in the bank.

First posted at 6:02 p.m. Thursday.

Tags:

Emanuel Pleitez, Eric Garcetti, fundraising, Jan Perry, Kevin James, mayor, TV, Wendy Greuel

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abramsrl topcommenter

Here's my personal take on Kevin James -- he would be a great mayor. He was a federal prosecutor so he can spot corruption a mile away -- and the statute of limitations has not run on a lot a of the criminal behavior of Garcetti, Greuel, Zine, Wesson. While the mayor cannot bring criminal cases, a mayor's office that understand Accounting Control Fraud can make certain the City cooperates in prosecuting the thieves. Right now, there is only obstructionism from City Hall. As the current Gold Card ticket fixing scandal shows, the corruption is run right from the mayor's office!

As a former radio talk show host, Kevin James knows how to communicate with the public. We see nationally, how the crooks hate it when Obama uses the bully pulpit to speak directly to the people. The forces for corruption in L.A. do not want an anti-corruption mayor who knows how to communicate.

Here's the interesting part from my person perspective, the only people more horrified than the DEMs at Kevin James' becoming mayor of Los Angeles is the GOP. That is my explanation why they have cash starved him. With adequate funding from the beginning, Kevin James would be leading in the polls. The GOP are clearly terrified of a Kevin James success as that will virtually destroy their far right wing policies of economic lunacy, pro-corruption, anti-gay and anti-women agenda. The very last thing the national GOP wants is for a Gay, anti-corruption, fiscally sane Republican to become mayor of the nation's second largest city.

I see no better way to stick it to the bigots who run the national GOP than to elect a Gay Republican as mayor of Los Angeles. I support Kevin James because he is the best, but knowing that it will drive the national GOP crazy also brings joy to my heart.

lopezj12

This absolutely crazy, it seems that the Unions are buying their way into the Mayor office, we need a candidate that is not swimming in this dirty pool we call LA city hall, we need an outsider that was not a factor to our current condition as a city. We need Kevin James to be mayor, James was a federal prosecutor, so he know where all the corruption is and he can clean city hall, bring jobs back by embracing the private sector through business tax reform, and streamline of the permit process so business can begin easier and faster. Kevin's policies are novel from the same old proposed solutions of Perry, Garcetti, and Gruel, lets not forget plleitez, he worked for the white house, so already off to a bad start. Regardless, we need Kevin to be mayor, because its his new policies is what will make LA residents hopeful for the future of their city again. If anyone wants to put LA on the path to prosperity, please visit volunteerforkevin.wordpress.com