Election spending doesn't guarantee the votes to win

Community First Langford spent a whopping $143,108 on its campaign last fall, but failed to get a single candidate elected, despite having almost all of Langford’s incumbent politicians. The newcomer Langford Now slate gave former mayor Stew Young the challenge of his career with its political campaign that cost almost $57,000, and succeeded in getting every one of its candidates elected.

Between its seven candidates of seasoned politicians, Community First Langford spent around $20,000 per person, mostly on signs, advertising, and professional services. The elector organization, which was formed last year, collected donations from 128 people who gave an average of $1,114. (The maximum contribution allowed is $1,250.)

Langford Now had a slate of five all new candidates; it received donations from 116 people, with an average contribution of $359.

The chart here shows how much candidates spent per vote—the horizontal axis represents total spend, and the vertical axis shows how many votes each candidate received. The purple dots show people who were elected; orange dots show those who did not earn a seat. Hover your curser over the dot to see what candidate it represents, and how much they spent. View one municipality at a time by selecting it in the drop down menu on the left.

Not each of Langford Now’s candidates were equal in campaign spending; some donations were directed to the group and some were sent to specific candidates. Colby Harder collected $5,209.05 donations, and spent almost $16,000 on her campaign (including shared expenses among the team). Mary Wagner got about $8,000 in donations, and spent $13,000—compared to Mark Morely who got $2,388 in individual donations and spent just more than $9,000.

Langford’s new mayor Scott Goodmanson was an independent candidate; he spent $4,148—only a few hundred dollars more than Lillian Szpak who spent $3,522.

The $143,108 spent by the Community First team was—by far—the most money former mayor Stew Young or any of his team have spent on an election. It was also the first time Young ever lost an election. His slate spent thousands of dollars more than any other Westshore campaign.

The new mayor of Colwood, Doug Kobayashi, had the second highest spend, trailing by $2,300 for a total of $18,094.

Across the six municipalities, former mayor Rob Martin spent the most money per vote—his $16,590 campaign netted just 1,216 votes. That’s $13 for every vote, which was not nearly enough to re-elect the one-term mayor. His successor Kobayashi spent more, but his cost per vote was just $7.07. That’s still a lot higher than the average $2.21 per vote between all the winning candidates.

What else do you want to know about campaign finances from the municipal election? Let me know by email or on Twitter.

Elections BC auditors will review every elector organization, and some individual candidates, so figures may change.