Thompson NDP MLA Steve Ashton spent $89,564 last fall in his losing bid to succeed Gary Doer as premier and in doing so exceeded by $7,564 the $82,000 maximum set out by party rules for the campaign.
While Ashton exceeded the party's maximum limit for the leadership campaign, no Elections Manitoba rules were broken.
A Form 947 Leadership Contestant's Financial Statements and Supporting Schedules, filed on Ashton's behalf with Elections Manitoba Feb. 17 by Winnipeg accountant Ken Phernambucq, shows the longest-serving MLA in the Manitoba legislature took in $83,826 in donations, leaving his campaign with a $5,738 deficit.
At least nine doctors donated to Ashton's campaign, while Malcolm MacDonald, a prominent Thompson lawyer and partner in the law firm of McDonald Huberdeau, who was appointed as provincial court judge for The Pas Feb. 3, donated $1,000.
The full eight-page report can be found on the Elections Manitoba website at: http://www.electionsmanitoba.ca/galleries/download/Financial_Returns/Leadership_contest_returns/F947_2009_AshtonS.pdf
Ashton said he understands $1,100 in donations had to be returned to the donors because they were over the $3,000 limit allowed by Elections Manitoba. Those donations still had to be counted as contributions.
The Ashton campaign also paid the delegate fees for some youth delegates to attend the Oct. 17 convention in Winnipeg.
Ashton outspent both his rivals by a wide margin. Premier Greg Selinger spent $60,618 on his winning campaign. Contributions to Selinger's campaign totalled $87,586, resulting in a surplus of nearly $27,000. Andrew Swan, who dropped out early last Sept. 27, spent $44,489.
Ashton was appointed as minister of infrastructure and transportation by Selinger last Nov. 3. Swan was appointed minister of justice and attorney general.
A decade earlier, in October 1999, Doer had appointed Ashton as minister of highways and government services (the department was renamed in January 2001 as transportation and government services) and he held the post until he was shuffled in September 2002 to conservation.
