The campaign may have incurred additional expenses/debts and/or received additional contributions in the final week before the election, although it doesn't have to list that information until July 31. (We sought information on this via a June 18 email to Councilman Garcia but didn't receive a response.)

The invitation for the June 30 event -- which will be held in the 2nd district at a new restaurant near The Pike south of Shoreline Dr. -- indicates "$1,000 maximum individual, $2,500 maximum PAC" while adding "all donations are welcome."

The City Clerk's office says sums collected can't be used by Garcia in the 2010 election cycle...but up to $10,000 (beyond sums needed to pay off debts) can be transferred into an "officeholder account," a fund maintained by many incumbent Councilmembers that they can spend on district-related items without using taxpayer resources.

The "officeholder account" concept was criticized by the late civic activist Jim Sturm who called it basically an incumbent slush fund to curry favor with groups and individuals that might eventually support the incumbent's re-election. However City Auditor Laura Doud's office recently supported raising the officeholder account maximum amount to $10,000, arguing it avoids tapping scarce General Fund revenues for items that could benefit district residents.

City Clerk records indicate the Garcia campaign spent a whopping $102,455 as of April 1 for an April 7 election in which Garcia received less than a majority of votes cast (40.7%, 1,077 votes) in the multi-candidate, no-runoff contest.

Garcia's campaign collected over $33,000 in 2008 before the filing period for candidates closed...including $2,500 maximum amounts given by LB's police and fire union PACs before the campaign filing period opened.

The $100,000+ Council district campaign and its roughly $100 spent per vote arguably reflects the fact that LB Councilmembers, although elected by district residents, have co-equal Council votes on developments and spending citywide.