Ivory making up for late spending

He may have been an extremely late entrant in the race for Salt Lake County mayor, but candidate Ellis Ivory has made up for lost time — at least financially.

According to campaign finance disclosure forms filed Tuesday, Ivory has spent more money in three weeks than Democrat Peter Corroon has spent in more than seven months of campaigning. Ivory has raised $350,000 and spent $343,000 of that, while Corroon has raised $356,000 and spent $300,000.

Of course, unlike Corroon, Ivory hasn't exactly had to beat the bushes to find contributors. On his disclosure form, Ivory lists exactly one contributor to his campaign — himself.

"You get someone who has been out there for eight months, and then you get someone coming in trying to buy the election," Corroon said.

Ivory, who has said he plans to spend $400,000, defends his financing strategy, saying the self-financing route leaves him free of influences — in fact, he has heavily publicized it as one of his "Four No's" (no salary, no county car, no credit card, no contributions — he also has Four Yes's).

Independent Merrill Cook has raised $41,000 and spent $38,000.

As in past financing periods, Corroon's biggest contributor since Sept. 15 (the last reporting deadline) has been the Utah State Democratic Party, which gave him $12,000. He also has received money from the Howard Dean organization Democracy for America ($5,000; Dean is Corroon's first cousin), Utah Soccer ($5,000; a new soccer complex on Salt Lake's west side is a hot topic nowadays), Solitude ski resort owner Gary Deseelhorst ($2,000; Deseelhorst also contributed to Nancy Workman's now-defunct campaign) and others.

While Corroon's past disclosure forms have been dominated by out-of-town individuals and companies (he's originally from New York), a much larger percentage of donors in the latest disclosure are local.

As might be expected, both candidates have spent the vast majority of their campaign money on media buys — TV and radio spots, billboards, lawn signs.

Historically, political candidates spent the lion's share of their money in the closing weeks of the campaign, with media blitzes intended to sway the undecided voter.

Workman, who faces felony charges of misuse of public money, has raised a whopping $858,000 in a losing cause, spending $682,000 of that before finally bowing out two weeks ago. Her last contribution ($600 from The Talon Group, based in Santa Ana, Calif.) came Sept. 30.

Workman still has $195,000 left, which she says she may use to pay her legal fees. (She can apply to the county for reimbursement should she win the case, which is scheduled for trial in February.)