July 22, 2004

De La Rosa and Pyle on par at money raising

Candidates begin scrutinizing fund-raising efforts

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

San Jose District 10 City Council candidates Rich De La Rosa and Nancy Pyle have raised about the same amount of money during the last campaign financial disclosure period, which ends this month.

The candidates reported they collected nearly $30,000 each Feb. 15 to June 30 from supporters to help pay for campaign expenses.

By law, the candidates can’t spend more than the $89,286 prescribed in the expenditure limit, which they agreed to respect and which is based on District 10’s population of 89,286 people. The formula is determined by adding $1 per district resident for council candidates. District 10 voters, however, can give their candidates up to $250 per person.

Pyle and De La Rosa are headed for a political showdown in the Nov. 11 run-off election.

De La Rosa, 51, an Almaden Valley insurance agent, finished ahead of Pyle in the March 2 primary election, but below a 50 percent and one vote majority needed to win. The seat represents Almaden Valley, Santa Teresa, and Blossom Valley.

The winner of the fall election will serve a four-year-term beginning Jan. 1, 2005 through December 31, 2008 and make $75,000 annually serving full time to represent his or her constituents.

Nathan Hanning, campaign manager for Rich De La Rosa, said he was grateful for residents’ generosity raising “just shy” of $30,000.

Hanning said none of the money came from De La Rosa’s pocket. Pyle, however, has spent about $5,000 of her own money on her campaign.

Hanning stressed De La Rosa has made a commitment against receiving contributions from any of the city’s 150 registered lobbyists, as has Pyle.

The 65-year-old Evergreen Community College trustee, who has served students for eight years, however, is rumored to have accepted money from embattled San Jose District 7 Councilman Terry Gregory.

Pyle admitted this week Gregory raised funds for her campaign, but stressed the councilman supported her prior to his alleged wrongdoing and investigation into violations of several state and local ethics laws, possibly including soliciting a bribe for failing to report valuable gifts from developer Dennis Fong while Fong conducted business with the city.

“It wasn’t all that much, but he was trying to help,” explained Pyle. “It wasn’t like I was taking money from Terry. He was trying to encourage others to support me.

“In this country, we’re all innocent until proven guilty. The same is certainly true for Terry Gregory. I’m not sure of anything and if Terry made a mistake, I know he’s the kind of person that would admit he made a mistake. We’re all entitled to two sides of a story and we’ve only heard one.”

Pyle and De La Rosa voluntarily agreed to obey the expenditure cap because while the money goes primarily to pay for “voter contact” materials such as mailings, campaign literature and postage, it limits the perception of abuse making the election fair with equal amounts of money raised and spent by the candidates.

The state Legislature has also established a code of fair campaign practices, and encourages the candidates to subscribe to it. The purpose of the code is to give the voters guidelines in determining fair play and encourage candidates to discuss issues, not untruths or distortions.

“We want to go out and have a positive race,” Hanning said. “We want to have a real discussion of the issues and let the voters vote on the views and the characters of the candidates.”

The candidates have also prepared statements for inclusion in the sample ballot mailed to voters prior to the fall election by the Santa Clara County registrar of voters.

For more information on the fall election, contact San Jose City Clerk Lee Price at (408) 277-4424.