By Savage Pacer, Staff reports 

Campaign finance reports submitted for last fall’s election shows a wide range of money was spent by candidates and citizen groups.

City of Savage

In the city races, the mayoral candidates spent the most.

Mayor-elect Janet Williams spent $844, while taking in $525 in contributions. Her expenses included the filing fee, bookmarks, fliers, stickers for signs, a web site and newspaper ads. Mayoral candidate Lonny Johnson spent $728 and received no monetary contributions. His expenses included fliers and office supplies.

Candidate Frank F. Bailey III spent the least, as he listed zero for both donations and expenditures. Incumbent City Councilman Al McColl spent $37 for campaign sign posts. He received $75 in campaign donations. City Councilwoman-elect Christine Kelly reported she spent $404 on lawn signs and took in donations totaling $145. And Candidate Garry Larson reported spending $587 on handouts, signs, postage and sign posts and taking in $230 in contributions.

Campaign finance reports are completed by candidates and committees that receive contributions or make disbursements of more than $750 in a calendar year; committees or corporations that spend more than $750 for or against a ballot question in a calendar year; and corporations that spend more than $200 on activities to encourage participation in precinct caucuses, voter registration or voting.

District 719

Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board candidates, Board Member Diane Ziemann reported spending just over $5,500 on lawn signs, hand-out copies, advertising and thank-you newspaper advertisements.

Candidate John Myser estimated his expenses at about $2,500.

Other candidates and Board Members all reported spending and receiving less than $750 for their campaigns in the last year. Candidates who spent less than $750 were not required to itemize expenses.

Still, Board Member-elect Dee Dee Francis estimated she spent $272 on signs, magnets, cardstock and a Web site address. Former candidate Mike Von Arx reported his expenses at $111 for hand-outs and a printer-ink cartridge.

Referendum committees

Stand By Me, the citizens group in District 719 that supported the school district's referendums, reported receiving a total of $17,238 in contributions over the past year.

Of the contributions, the largest was $5,000 from Richard and Sheridan Hafdal of Prior Lake. The Prior Lake-Savage Education Association, or teachers union, donated $2,786 and the Glendale Parent Teacher Child organization donated $500.

Other notable donors included Superintendent Tom Westerhaus and his wife, Betsy, who contributed $100 and Board Chairman Michael Murray and his wife, Kristin, who donated $100, as well. Leanne Weyrauch, director of community education, and her husband, Jack, also donated $100, and Prior Lake State Bank donated $100.

According to the finance report, Stand by Me spent $15,938. Expenditures went toward a variety of promotional items. Some of the top-dollar items for spending included newspaper advertisements ($2,493), postcard postage ($1,470), fliers sent to households ($860), yard signs ($869), and T-shirts and stickers ($857).

Citizens for Accountable Government, a fiscally-conservative group that spoke out against the district's referendums, took in $2,345 in contributions. The group spent $2,170 on items including printing fliers, postage, envelopes, a mailing list and blank checks. Top donors to the group, all donating $200, were Chairman David Thompson, Leroy Seurer, Wayne Rixmann, David Laporte, Trent Johnson, and Leonard Steider.

In the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District, the Vote Yes 191 campaign, a community group supporting the referendum, reported receiving $14,755 in donations.

Top donors included the teachers union, Burnsville Education Association (BEA), and Susan and David Martin with donations of $5,000 each. Susan Martin is a member of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School Board.

Other significant donors included Aldo and Robin Sicoli and the Burnsville Principal Association, with donations of $500 each. Aldo Sicoli is the assistant superintendent of community relations, school operations and program services for District 191.

The other $3,755 of the donations came in donations of less than $500 each.

According to the campaign finance report, the Vote Yes committee had $10,304 in expenditures. The largest portion was spent on marketing with Meyer Teleservices, totaling $4,365. Susan and David Martin were reimbursed $3,500 as the committee didn’t need all of the money they donated. And “Vote Yes” Co-Chairman Tom Taylor was also reimbursed $1,360 for printing expenses he put on his credit card. Other money was spent on apparel printing, fliers and other miscellaneous disbursements.

 Nancy Huddleston, Joanna Miller and Keighla Schmidt all contributed to this story.