Small Gifts Add Up For Craswell Locke Has Big Donors, But Rival Has More Money

He’s got Microsoft’s Bill Gates and the CEO of Starbucks, bank bigwigs and university presidents - the uptown, insider vote. He raises money at glittering $1,100-per-plate dinner parties.

She’s got thousands of people - from homemakers and retirees to carpenters and grocery checkers - sending her $10 a month.

And so far, Republican gubernatorial candidate Ellen Craswell has raised more money that King County Executive Gary Locke, the Democratic nominee.

Craswell has raised $390,783 since the primary, while Locke has raised $354,065, records show. The gap has widened since the Oct. 10 reporting period closed, with Craswell pulling further ahead.

Her campaign reports having raked in another $150,425, while Locke’s campaign estimates having collected another $125,000.

“It’s been sluggish,” said Sheryl Hutchison, Locke’s campaign press secretary. “Because of Gary’s position in the race, people put their money somewhere else, where they think it is more needed.”

A recent statewide poll for The Spokesman-Review showed Locke nearly 20 percentage points ahead of Craswell.

But it’s not how much money Locke and Craswell have raised but how they have done it that says the most about the candidates.

At a recent Locke fund-raiser, waiters in black tie passed out canapes from silver trays to a crowd of Democratic insiders before serving a sit-down dinner of salmon in chardonnay sauce and filet mignon topped with bearnaise sauce.

They sipped Washington wines and watched the sunset play over Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains from a private club on the 75th floor of the Columbia Tower. It’s a glittering aerie of ear-popping height where even the ladies room has a killer view and golden fixtures that would make a Roman emperor blush.

Locke’s take, at $1,100 a head, came to $86,000 at the door. Another $40,000 or so is expected in the mail, Hutchison said.

Then there’s Craswell. She raises money with a troupe of angelic children, The Stars and Stripes, who dress in red, white and blue and sing patriotic songs for adoring crowds.

At a recent Craswell rally in Seattle, little girls in petticoats and braids and fresh-scrubbed cherubic boys in Stars and Stripes vests regaled the audience with tales of Francis Scott Key, pleaded to return the country to God’s grace and sang in sweet chorus.

Republican Gov. John Engler of Michigan held forth on the wonders of tax- and budget-cutting, and a rabbi thundered about the “lascivious legacy of liberalism.”

Craswell’s take: $15,000. It was collected in buckets passed down rows of plastic chairs to a crowd of more than 800 gathered at the state Convention Center.

Craswell’s financial disclosure report lists page after page of small contributors. More than 5,300 people have signed up statewide to be members of her Foundation Club. They tithe $10 every month to her gubernatorial campaign.

Her in-kind contributions detail a campaign built with the tools of the grass roots - from yard signs to cookies, coffee and other refreshments served at small get-togethers in homes. Many contribute postage, used to mail more than 320,000 of Craswell’s trademark “friend-to-friend” postcards distributed so far during the campaign.

The cards are used by supporters to recruit believers in the Craswell crusade.

Her contributor list is dominated by small-business owners and tradespeople. A sampling includes fast-food workers, office managers, contractors, bus drivers and dispatchers. They are the foot soldiers in Craswell’s army, along with the occasional lawyer, nurse or engineer.

But it’s not all grass roots and bake sales. The state Republican Party is planning to dump a whopping $500,000 into Craswell’s race, according to state party spokesman Todd Myers.

The money will be spent mostly on TV advertisements and mailings, he said.

A very different picture emerges from Locke’s campaign disclosure reports. He has his share of retirees and homemakers, too, but overall, his campaign is an up-market gig.

From Microsoft’s Bill and Melinda Gates to the owner of Starbucks, from the president of Eastern Washington University to the presidents and chief executive officers of Price/Costco and U.S. Bank, Locke’s list of supporters bulges with bigwigs.

Then there are pages of doctors, government managers, professors, consultants, investors and political action committees representing everyone from Teamsters to dentists, machinists to optometrists, environmentalists to commercial fishermen.

Anybody left in doubt of Locke’s Seattle style need only check out the list of items auctioned at a recent fund-raiser.

Participants ponied up hundreds of dollars to the campaign for goodies donated by supporters, including a wine-tasting party for six, with appetizers; Internet software for Windows; and one hour of floating in a health club’s isolation tank.

The vice president of the Seattle Mariners offered box seats behind home plate. Then there was the sprout farm, for the healthy hip. And, of course: a month’s worth of lattes.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Where they stand…