Shannon O’Dunn Frames Possible Repeat Run for City Council in 2012

She isn’t committed to a council race in 2012, but art gallery owner Shannon O’Dunn was among six people who filed semiannual financial disclosure statements this summer.

O’Dunn took third (and nearly 30 percent of the vote) behind incumbent Councilwoman Ruth Sterling in the November 2008 race, when Dave Allan also was returned to the council. O’Dunn had a campaign website on MySpace.com

Others filing Form 460 disclosures with the La Mesa city clerk by the Aug. 1 deadline were Laura Lothian, Patrick Dean, Jim Wieboldt, Sterling and Mayor Art Madrid, who isn’t up for election until 2014.

Two council seats will be contested in the November 2012 elections—ones held by Sterling and retiring Councilman Allan.

The filings—called Recipient Committee Campaign Statements—are required under government code sections 84200-84216.5.

In reply to a La Mesa Patch query, O’Dunn indicated only that her campaign from 2008 hasn’t shut down.

“The current Form 460 indicates that my campaign committee from 2008 is still active; it is not necessarily a declaration of candidacy,” she said last week.

But she recalled that Allan “was so generous of spirit as to endorse me in 2008,” although he re-entered the race that year.  

As of last week, O’Dunn said she hasn’t spoken with Allan about his decision not to seek re-election, but “was moved by his sharing of personal motives in declining to run in 2012.”

Asked what her issues would be if she entered next year’s race, O’Dunn wrote: “Any new campaign of mine would certainly be informed by my experience as a businesswoman in La Mesa, which began in January of 2009.

“As a former board member of the La Mesa Village Merchants Association and current vice chair of the Steering Committee for the exploration and formulation of a PBID district in the village, I am interested in the long-term fiscal stability of our city, and the ways in which enhanced commerce will support that.”

Beyond The Village, she said, “The city must be active, visionary partners re upcoming changes to Grossmont Center, and the potential development of the Park Station project.”

O’Dunn operates O’Dunn Fine Art on La Mesa Boulevard.

In her first run for elective office, in 2006, O’Dunn sought Seat No. 3 on the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District board, taking more than 47 percent of the vote in a losing effort.

In 2009, she helped save the La Mesa Flag Day Parade when she started a fund drive that included her own money.

According to the Form 460 disclosures, O’Dunn raised and spent no money in the first six months of 2011. Neither did Councilwoman Sterling or 2010 mayoral challenger Lothian.

But Democrat Dean reported that his Patrick Dean for La Mesa City Council 2012 committee received $975 and spent $285. His biggest donors—contributing $100 each—were Anna Shepherd of San Diego, a U.S. Navy planner; Stuart Strenger of La Mesa, a retiree; Gary Cantor of Del Mar, a retiree; and Edward Agunos of San Diego, a SPAWARS engineer.

The $285 expense all went to Jill Richardson of La Mesa for “reimbursement of food purchases,” said the Form 460 available at City Hall.

In the 2010 council race, novice candidate Dean took third out of six hopefuls—behind incumbents Mark Arapostathis and Ernie Ewin.

Wieboldt, another PBID committee member, announced his run for council the day after the 2010 election. His six-month finance report shows he received $200 and spent $336.57.

O’Dunn was asked what she learned from her 2008 race, and she replied: “That’s too complex a topic for a one-off here. Incumbency is an almost insurmountable hurdle—from special district boards to county supervisorial districts. And the nature of the field of challenging candidates can have a deep and sometimes unintended effect on these elections as well.”

She concluded, poetically: “These are unresolved variables at this point, and so, as Robert Frost said: ‘Let chaos storm! Let cloud shapes swarm! I wait for form.’ ”