Smith’s deep pockets present major challenge, Nenshi says

Bill Smith is using big spending, rather than substance, to keep the mayor’s race close a frustrated Naheed Nenshi said Friday. It’s an accusation his top rival denies.

As the campaign entered its final 72 hours, Nenshi brushed off a poll showing he’s 11 points behind Smith, but said the race remains a close one due to unprecedented campaign resources wielded by his main foe.

“Mr. Smith is spending an enormous amount of money — TV ads in mayoral elections, who thought of that? Buying out the Saddledome and McMahon Stadium ads, doing push polls every single night — and this is an extraordinary use of money,” said the mayor, who repeated his contention Smith’s campaign platform is frustratingly vague. “I have never been a champion of big money and small ideas.”

Nenshi said a Mainstreet Research/Postmedia poll of 1,500 people Tuesday and Wednesday showing Smith with 47 per cent of voters’ support, compared to 36 per cent for him, is questionable in his view, in light of his campaign’s internal polling and one done for lobby group LRT on the Green, which show opposite results.

“They still show us comfortable, certainly tight — a race where every vote counts, but I’m feeling confident,” he said.

Even if the latest Mainstreet poll were to be believed, it shows Smith’s support slipping by six per cent in the course of a few days, said Nenshi.

“The momentum has clearly slipped away from his campaign,” he said.

He once again knocked Smith for not divulging his campaign donors list before Monday’s vote, adding his opponents in earlier elections he’s fought have done just that.

Nenshi’s focus on campaign spending is another distraction — similar to the Flames arena debate — from his sub-par performance as mayor, said Smith.

“It seems he’s trying to deflect away from the issues and how badly he’s done over the years,” said Smith. “This campaign is about issues and about the mayor’s performance, and what I’m hearing from Calgarians is they’re looking for change.”

Tax increases that have totalled 51 per cent during the mayor’s sev-

en-year reign, he said, are what’s hobbling his opponent’s re-election efforts, he said. “It’s a huge deal — Calgarians feel they’ve been overtaxed and haven’t felt there’s been that big an increase in service — to some people, it’s out of control,” said Smith.

Nenshi says the correct figure on increased taxes over the past seven years is 23.7 per cent.

Smith also rejected Nenshi’s categorization of his campaign platform as being vague, insisting his vows of tax and spending restraint and better collaboration with council is “pretty clear.

Smith wouldn’t say how much he expects to spend during the campaign, adding “we’ve got some bills not quite finalized.”

And he again said his campaign donor list will be released in accordance with electoral law, while refusing to say who his main contributors are.

In the 2013 race, the Nenshi campaign spent just under $400,000.

On Friday, the mayor said “we’re not a campaign of big money, we’re not doing push polls every single minute.”

Some pundits have said they suspect fundraising to cover $300,000 in legal costs from a defamation suit launched by developer Cal Wenzel exhausted some of Nenshi’s donor sources.