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Dollars and votes: Two regional councillors biggest spenders in 2018 Richmond Hill municipal election

DiPaola spent $111K and Perrelli spent $106K on campaigns

Yorkregion.com
June 10, 2019
Shelia Wang

Money can’t buy you votes, but the biggest spenders did win in the 2018 municipal election in Richmond Hill.

The two elected regional councillors -- Joe DiPaola and Carmine Perrelli -- spent the most on their campaigns among all candidates, according the recently released 2018 municipal elections financial statements.

Spending nearly $111,000 on his campaign, DiPaola led the highest-profile race for regional councillors with 11,758 votes and was elected to one of the two empty seats.

Perrelli, who filled the other regional councillor seat, garnered the second most votes -- 11,418 -- and spent about $106,000 on his campaign.

These two candidates put more than $217,000 combined into the campaigns, which was about the same amount of money all the other six competitors spent altogether vying for the regional councillor seats.

Big money was mostly spent on campaign promotion efforts such as advertising, brochures/flyers and signs.

The brochures and flyers alone cost Perrelli over $48,000 in the 2018 election, making him the biggest spender on this item among all candidates.

He also spent $29,000 on advertising and over $10,000 on campaign signs.

Meanwhile, the regional councillor also paid more than $10,000 toward five businesses including Baton Rouge and Hillcrest Mall for holding parties and other expressions of appreciation, just a couple of hundred dollars under the spending limit for this category.

While the 2018 municipal election probably wasn’t considered a hotly contested election, it was certainly an expensive one.

The final price tag was $755,075 for all.

Some candidates chose to spend a pretty penny and some did not, which seems to have made a difference.

Financial and voting records show that top campaign spenders in the 2018 election ended up winning, except for Ward 5 where re-elected Councillor Karen Cilevitz spent $27,030 on her campaign, about $200 less than her competitor Nick Papa.

Cilevitz was elected with close to 52 per cent of the votes, defeating Papa who received 37 per cent.

Other highlights

Mayor Dave Barrow, who received an overwhelming support for his re-election, spent $68,005 in total on his campaign, far exceeding all the rest competitors.

In Ward 1, Greg Beros spent over $30,000, much higher than the second biggest spender Lidia Kafieh running for the same seat.

In Ward 2, Tom Muench spent over $20,000, more than all his competitors combined.

In Ward 4, David West spent almost $24,000, much higher the other two rivals.

In Ward 6, Godwin Chan spent over $41,000 while one of his competitors spent zero and the other spent under $4,000.

Ward 3 Councillor Castro Liu was acclaimed.

The Liberal compiled the detailed records online for each candidate in the 2018 Richmond Hill municipal election.