Pisasale launches $100K campaign
BACKED by rugby league luminary Darren Lockyer, the Chinese and Italian communities and a special campaign committee, Paul Pisasale launched his re-election bid yesterday.
In his campaign office in the Bendigo Bank building, the mayor said he expected to spend at least $100,000 on his campaign.
"The media component is $25,000, $20,000 on shirts and hats and that sort of thing; all the things you have to do on election day. Then you have to feed everyone and there's all the in-kind expenses," he said.
"Darren Lockyer had a fundraiser for me the other night and raised $35,000, we've sent out letters to business people and developers, and that raised about $40,000. The Chinese community had a fundraiser for me and Curry Oh Curry is doing one on Sunday night. Gambaro's had a fundraiser as well.
"People come up to me in the street wanting to donate. And this time I've done something different; I've set up a not-for-profit organisation called Forward Ipswich; it's a committee that runs the whole campaign."
Asked how that compared with what he's spending on his mayoral campaign, Peter Luxton said: "Unfavourably, I think you'd have to say.
"I've spent about $6000 so far and maybe it will get up to 10; that would be about it.
"I won't get any change out of 10, but it's all my own money, I have not got any donations at this stage. I'm not doing any fundraising; I don't have time. It's a tricky one, but I'm happy with the spend so far."
Paul Pisasale said he would reveal his policies next Friday after consulting his councillors and listening to the community.
"In the last election we made 150 commitments and we honoured 100% of those," he said.
"I still love the job and I've made a commitment because there's a lot of things that have been started that I believe need someone with experience to complete."
