Well, you can’t say big money is ruining Rossland municipal politics.
Candidates in October’s municipal election have filed their spending returns, which were released Feb. 5 by Elections BC.
The documents show that all but one person elected to council didn’t spend a single penny trying to woo voters.
Five of the six councillors — Stewart Spooner, Janice Nightingale, Andy Morel, Scott Forsyth, and Chris Bowman all ran money-free campaigns. Only Dirk Lewis spent anything to get elected — $401.12.
In fact, spending money on a campaign seems to have been counter-productive in Rossland. Five candidates who didn’t make the cut actually spent some money trying to get elected.
The biggest spender was Richard Soltice, who dropped $591.02 on his losing bid for a council seat. John Lake was second at $500, Deke Baley spent $410.40, John Greene $161.13, and Fletcher Quince reported spending $100.
Three candidates who didn’t get elected also reported spending no money — Andrew Zwicker and Jill Spearn both dropped out of the race early, and Carol Enns also ran a cash-free campaign.
Mayor Kathy Moore, acclaimed to the job when no one ran against her, also filed a return showing no spending.
As for who’s influencing the one councillor who spent money on his campaign, you can rest easy. Lewis is in the pocket of ‘Big Lewis’ — his campaign was self-financed.
So too were all the other candidates’ campaigns. None of them reported recieving any external donations.