Akbal Mund is Vernon's new mayor.
(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)
February 23, 2015 - 1:31 PM
VERNON – Akbal Mund spent less than half the money his closest competitors did in his successful bid to win the November 2014 civic election.
According to campaign contributions released by Elections B.C. today, Feb. 23, Mund spent just over $8,500 on his campaign in November 2014 and grabbed 3,714 votes.
Compare that to the almost $20,000 spent by Victor Cumming, who placed second with 3,089 votes, and the almost $21,000 spent by third place finisher Mary-Jo O’Keefe who garnered only 1,312 ballots cast in her favour.
Mund says he announced a lot later than the other candidates so he had less time to spend money on advertising.
“There was some strategy in there,” he says. “I was heavy up (on spending) in the last two weeks and that again was more strategy.”
The majority of the cash for Mund’s election campaign, $5,500, came from corporate donors, although the Vernon Firefighter’s Association kicked in $1,000 in an effort to see him elected to the city’s top job.
Mund admits his advisors talked him out of spending his own money on the campaign.
“I wasn’t going to say no to anybody because I didn’t want to offend anybody. I met with them and said ‘thank you very much’ and this what I’ll use if for,” he says. “I did not refuse any donations but I did not go out asking for any either.”
Two local companies backed both Mund and his competitor Cumming. Wesbild Holdings Ltd. contributed $1,500 to both campaigns, while Predator Ridge Limited Partnership wrote a cheque for $1,750 to each candidate.
Cumming also had the financial backing of outgoing mayor Rob Sawatzky to the tune of $4,316.
He also wins the “out-of-my-own pocket” award with over $8,000 from his company West Coast Community Economic Development listed in the documents from Elections B.C.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca or call 250-491-0331. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
— This story was updated at 4:20 p.m., Monday, Feb. 23, 2015 to include a comment from Mayor Mund.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015