Dollars flowing in city race

Donations to two candidates for Columbia Council top $150,000 each

By ADAM BEAM - abeam@thestate.com

Belinda Gergel has raised more money for a City Council district seat than some state Senate hopefuls — and she did it with a mixture of small contributions from neighborhood leaders and hefty checks from her husband’s network of wealthy attorneys.

Matching her is one of her District 3opponents, Brian Boyer, who has amassed his arsenal with a smaller network of home builders and military veterans who write big checks.

A closer look at the campaign contributions shows where the battle lines have been drawn:

• Gergel gaining the support of longtime Democrats and the mainstream Five Points Association members

• Boyer getting support from Rosewood merchants and a group of politically conservative developers and businessmen led by his brother-in-law and boss, Don Tomlin

A third candidate, Reed Swearingen, has raised $3,425, plus an extra $8,000 out of his own pocket.

Boyer portrayed Gergel’s donors as part of the political establishment of Columbia that so many of his supporters hope to change.

“I’m an outsider to that group. I’m not social friends with (Mayor) Bob Coble,” Boyer said. “I have a very different approach to transparency and open government and fiscal responsibility than anybody in the existing establishment.”

Gergel said it’s “ridiculous” to frame her donors as part of the political establishment — pointing our her 659 contributors are twice that of Boyer.

“I’m going after the more everyday neighborhood sort of folks,” Gergel said.

BOYER’S STRATEGY

Boyer’s $150,000 came from a smaller number of contributors — 344 to Gergel’s 659. But Boyer’s donors reached deeper into their pockets, writing checks that average nearly double what Gergel’s supporters gave.

That difference has allowed Boyer to keep up in a fundraising war that will decide a council seat for a district concerned with in-fill development, police protection and the future of Five Points.

Consider the quarter ending Oct. 10, a three-month span in which 164 people gave to Gergel and 98 people gave to Boyer. Gergel raised $38,000 that quarter, mostly from checks for $100 or less.

Boyer nearly matched Gergel’s fundraising that quarter with the help of 25 checks of $1,000 each, the maximum donation allowed by state law. By comparison, Gergel had nine $1,000 contributions that quarter.

Boyer has also gotten support, mostly $1,000 checks, from a group of businessmen who serve or have served on the board for the Foundation for Columbia’s Future, a group formed in 2002 to debate city issues.

State Commerce Secretary Joe Taylor, businessman Gayle Averyt, City Councilman Kirkman Finlay and Tomlin all have ties to the foundation and have donated $1,000 each. Their family members and associated businesses have also donated $1,000 apiece.

“I haven’t been involved in any of that in over two years,” Taylor said, referring to the foundation. “But I am keenly interested in what goes on in Columbia.”

Boyer also picked up the endorsement of Katon Dawson, chairman of the state Republican Party.

But Boyer also points out the support of Damon Jeter, a Democratic Richland County councilman, as a show of bipartisan support in a nonpartisan race.

GERGEL’S STRATEGY

Gergel has raised $164,000 with the help of some longtime Democrats, attorneys and Five Points business owners.

Her Democratic contributors include former state Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum, former Gov. Jim Hodges, former Attorney General Travis Medlock along with Democratic state senators Joel Lourie, Vincent Sheheen, Kay Patterson and House member Todd Rutherford.

Dick Harpootlian, an attorney and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, and Don Fowler, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, are also contributors.

Gergel has also benefited from her husband’s connections. Richard Gergel, a longtime attorney, is well connected throughout the state. Gergel has 123 contributions from attorneys — the most of any other profession.

While Gergel has her fair share of $1,000 checks, she also has a host of smaller amounts from housewives and neighborhood leaders like Coles Lawton in Wales Garden and members of the Five Points Association like Jack VanLoan, Richard Burts and Debbie McDaniel. Doug Quackenbush, the architect who designed the Five Points master plan, also contributed.

The election is Tuesday.

Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405.