Robinson denies elections gripe

Growth in Cary has slowed to a trickle. As a political issue, though, it remains a bitter evergreen.

A grass-roots activist complained Thursday to the State Board of Elections about the fundraising of Jennifer Robinson, the Cary Town Council District A incumbent, in her last election, back in 2005. Van W. Kloempken alleges that she manipulated campaign-finance reports to hide until after the voting that most of her contributions came from the development community.

Robinson dismissed the allegations, saying that she was just following her usual common-sense fundraising practice of raising only what she had spent, and that she wasn't trying to hide anything.

Candidates don't have to report contributions in the last few days before an election until it's over. Kloempken complained that Robinson had spent about $17,500 of her own money in the 2005 campaign, then waited until after the election to report a last-minute wave of contributions.

Before the reporting deadline -- Sept. 26, 2005 -- she showed about $1,700 in contributions. After the election, she reported 30 contributions, totaling $16,675, that arrived in the 10 days after the final pre-election reporting deadline but before the election. Most were from people connected with the real estate industry.

Robinson said she didn't seek contributions until the end of the campaign because she didn't know exactly how much she would spend.

"I have never been one of those people who feels the need to raise a giant war chest," she said. "I only spend what I need, and then I raise only what I needed."

That explains why her contributions come mostly at the end of the campaign, Robinson said, because only then does she have all the bills.

She said she plans to follow the same pattern in the current race, in which the voting will come Oct. 6. She still has more campaign material to mail but doesn't know how much the mailings will cost. When she has all the bills, she'll ask her supporters for that amount.

"Ask anyone who has ever worked for me on a campaign, and they'll tell you this is how I do things," she said.

Robinson said that she always works to find common ground between developers and residents, and that Kloempken remains bitter about a single development, a mixed-use project she voted for only after gaining significant concessions from the developer.

Kloempken was a founder of DavisandHighHouse.org, a group that opposed the project and now endorses Lori Bush, one of Robinson's three opponents for Town Council.

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