Since the submission of the Harbor Village plan and the Measure B ballot initiative, opponents of AES’s effort to rezone the land under the Redondo Generating Station knew that they were in for an uphill battle. But the figures from the latest campaign funding statements outpace what anyone might have projected, even given the more than $300,000 the power company spent fighting 2013’s Measure A.
According to the most recent CA 460 forms filed with the Redondo Beach City Clerk’s office, AES has spent $765,050.31 promoting and campaigning for Measure B – in 2015 alone. In total, Yes on B has $857,180 from January 2014 though Valentine’s Day 2015.
By comparison, the opposing campaign led by Redondo Residents for Responsible Redevelopment has spent $8,763.80 – or little more than one percent of Yes on B’s spending.
Though R4 has received a fraction of the money that Yes on B has, the organization feels its made up for the funding disparity with what they consider to be exceptional engagement on the issue. R4 treasurer and volunteer Rob Gaddis, who has been spotted walking neighborhoods in support of No on B as well as R4’s chosen District 3 City Council candidate, Candace Allen Nafissi, touted the organization’s fundraising at a recent town forum.
“They use all paid canvassers, we use all volunteer. We’re purely on donations of citizens; they’ve spent, what, $680,000 on their campaign? It’s one corporation funding theirs, and ours is hundreds and hundreds of citizens; more than 500 people have donated.”It’s definitely a citizens’ initiative as opposed to a corporation funding a campaign.
“It’s truly voter participation,” Gaddis said. “We’ve got pages and pages of people who gave $100 donations, but the vast majority of contributors have been smaller donors who have given $50 or less,” he said, counting off denominations of $5, $10 and $20 checks that the campaign has taken. “But…there are a lot of them.”
Contributing to Yes on B’s grassroots credibility is that, of the $8,763 spent, more than $5,000 of that was spent in the South Bay. The majority of AES’ campaign funds have gone to businesses and firms located in Sacramento, where political consultants McNally Temple Associates have taken charge of the election assets.
In fact, only two entities within Redondo Beach have been named as recipients of AES’s funding throughout the length of the campaign: Catalina Coffee Company, listed in the 2014 filings; and Melissa Ginsburg, the wife of City Councilman Jeff Ginsburg, who was reimbursed $263.25 for purchasing supplies for an information meeting. “AES has spent a pile-full of money,” Redondo Beach Mayor Steve Aspel said. “I haven’t spent a nickel – it doesn’t serve any purpose for me to contribute money or anything like that. At the end of the day, the people will decide — I’d rather spend the money on my family.”
AES Southland president Eric Pendergraft was unapologetic about the resources his company has committed, which include paying canvassers to go door-to-door. “We’ve got a fairly robust campaign because we want an educated group of voters who are making decisions based on a true understanding of the facts.”
“People have been criticizing them for spending so much money, but whether people like it or not, it’s their right, and their business,” said Aspel. “AES has the money to finance it outright. There’s not a reason in the world for a citizen to put money behind it.”
March of the Meetings
With March 3 less than a week away, Zero Hour approaches for the campaigns centered on ballot initiative Measure B, the AES-sponsored zoning change that would allow the company to tear down its own power plant as part of Redondo’s waterfront revitalization.
Voter outreach programs are reaching a fevered pitch, as a Yes on B informational meeting featuring Redondo Mayor Steve Aspel ran at the same time Monday night as a Redondo Residents for Responsible Revitalization forum.
Aspel, who lives in the neighborhood the meeting was based in, was pleased with the turnout, he said. “There were about 50 people there – 20 were undecided and a few opposed – and I believe everybody left in favor,” he said, mentioning that it was the largest such event that he had attended, and that AES was fronting the costs for the coffee-and-question gatherings.
The get-togethers, he said, are informal affairs featuring coffee and snacks, populated by letters sent from neighbors to neighbors – in this case, a number of the attendees were invited by Aspel personally.
A few miles away, at the Veterans’ Park Library, City Councilman Bill Brand was joined by fellow opponent of Measure B Todd Lowenstein, of R4, and Jim Light, of Building a Better Redondo in front of about 70 Redondo residents. Together, the three answered questions from both dyed-in-the-wool opponents of B as well as those sitting on the fence, such as 20-year Redondo resident Johnny Kurokawa.
“I was on the fence until I got here,” he said. “It seems like it doesn’t matter what we vote for, this plant is leaving.”
“I was one of those people who just wanted to get rid of the power plant, but…why make it easier on AES at this point?” ER
