Mar left with $262,000 campaign deficit
Five Tory candidates spent more than $6.3M in race to succeed Stelmach
Former cabinet minister Gary Mar — whose fundraising efforts are now the subject of a provincial ethics investigation — was the high roller in last year’s race to become premier, spending almost $2.7 million on his unsuccessful bid and now indebted to the tune of $262,000, according to financial documents released Friday by the PC party.
Overall, five Alberta Tory leadership candidates spent more than $6.3 million on the big-ticket leadership race to replace Ed Stelmach, more than double what the party spent during the entire 2008 provincial election. A sixth candidate, Rick Orman, declined to disclose his leadership race financial documents.
The donors include some of the biggest companies and richest individuals in Alberta, with Atco Group chief executive Nancy Southern, Liquor Depot CEO Irving Kipnes and Boardwalk’s Kolias brothers figuring prominently on a number of candidates’ financial disclosure statements.
According to the statements, Mar’s campaign was the only one to end up with a deficit, of $262,000.
Michael Lohner, Mar’s operations manager, said the team has been working to cover the deficit.
Lohner said fundraisers donors have been approached individually, and last week Mar appeared at the fundraiser at the Edmonton Petroleum Club.
“I believe it’s a position now where it’s balanced. Gary and his core team have been working hard to make sure everyone was taken care of,” he said.
Lohner said the campaign never intended to get into a deficit position, but after Mar made it onto the second ballot, the campaign had to quickly decide how much advertis- ing space and airtime to book prior to the Oct. 1 vote, he said.
The campaign for Redford, who won the leadership race last October, spent more than $1.3 million, but ended with a $21,000 surplus.
Redford said the amount spent by the leadership candidates is not surprising, given the importance of the race.
“It’s the nature of how our political system is working right now that there is an opportunity to engage an awful lot of people,” Redford said. “It does certainly cost money to have political campaigns.”
But Liberal MLA Hugh Macdonald said after seeing the vast sums spent on the leadership race and where the money came from, “you quickly realize that’s who is really running this province.
“And whenever people say this is an elite, out-of-touch government — this is over six million reasons why that’s true.”
In contrast, Macdonald noted his campaign for the leadership of the Alberta Liberals cost $48,000.
Third-place finisher Doug Horner spent just over $1.2 million and ended up with a small $8,000 surplus.
Energy Minister Ted Morton, who finished fourth and didn’t make it into the final round of voting, spent $977,238.
Doug Griffiths, who finished last in the race, spent the least of any of the candidates with a final tab of $164,400.