WILDOMAR - Her signs are bigger. And there's a good reason why.

City council candidate Marsha Swanson, a 61-year-old manager of a real estate office, amassed a campaign war chest of more than $11,000 in 2007, raising far more than any of the other 13 candidates running for a seat on what could be the inaugural Wildomar City Council.

Area voters will decide Feb. 5 whether to incorporate and, if so, which of the 14 candidates should serve on the inaugural five-person council. Voters also will be asked to decide if the council members should be elected on an at-large or a district basis in future elections.

The other 13 candidates on the ballot are Sheryl Ade, Gary Andre, Steve Beutz, Martha Bridges, Bob Cashman, Harv Dykstra, Scott Farnam, Roger Le Clerc, Bridgette Moore, Darrell Ruff, Michael Tierney, Tim Underdown and Paul Williams.

The majority of the candidates - Ade, Andre, Beutz, Bridges, Dykstra, Le Clerc, Ruff, Tierney and Williams - filed paperwork with the county's Registrar of Voters office saying they expected to raise less and spend less than $1,000 before Dec. 31, the last day of the first filing period of the campaign.

Financial disclosure forms detailing fundraising and spending between Jan. 1 and Jan. 19 are due by Thursday.

The three candidates running on a slate - Cashman, Moore and Underdown - all raised more than $2,800 from July 1 through Dec. 31. Farnam, who raised $4,285 from Nov. 8 through Dec. 31, was the only other candidate besides the slate candidates and Swanson to report raising more than $1,000.

Marsha Swanson

Swanson, who raised $11,107 from Nov. 8 through Dec. 31, listed $1,250 contributions from C. Rojas of Simi Valley, a housewife, and Lola Sacks, a retiree from Palm Springs. She listed $500 contributions from Charles Tunstall and Gary Brown, both of Wildomar.

The other contributions above $300 were $360 from Golden Triangle Investors of Costa Mesa, $300 from DH Holdings of Los Angeles and $300 from Robin Oxman of Huntington Beach.

Those same three contributors are listed on the forms filed by Farnam, Underdown, Moore and Cashman.

According to county documents, information provided by the candidates and the companies' Web sites, Golden Triangle is a development firm in the process of developing land near the intersection of Prielipp Road and Yamas Drive off Clinton Keith Road in southeastern Wildomar. Oxman, listed on the disclosure forms as a retired doctor, owns about 100 acres of land on the west side of Interstate 15 south of Clinton Keith. DH Holdings is the developer that built "The Shops at Clinton Keith" retail project in Wildomar and other projects in Southwest County.

The biggest contribution Swanson received was from herself, when she gave her campaign a $5,000 loan on Dec. 31.

"If I'm asking people for their commitment, I had to make that same commitment myself," she said Friday.

Talking about the contributions from Oxman, DH Holdings and Golden Triangle, Swanson said, "In the meetings we all made it clear the contributions were to get us elected, not for a favor in the end."

Swanson said the developers held a large meeting with invited candidates and asked some of them back for follow-up interviews. She said her experience with the Republican Party, which she sought for an endorsement, was similar, specifically the interview session she had with the Republicans.

Swanson listed spending $3,145.82 of her funds, $2,995.82 to a Los Angeles-based sign-making shop and $150 for buttons from a Lake Elsinore vendor, Karen Snyder. Swanson's red, white and blue signs are twice as large as the majority of the signs placed by the other candidates.

"They're the same size as Scott's (Farnam)," she noted. While the design was a bit busier than she expected, she said they stand out.

"They're doing the job," she said.

Bob Cashman

Cashman, a 65-year-old engineer, raised the second highest dollar amount, $5,253.92. In addition to his contributions from Golden Triangle, Oxman and DH Holdings, Cashman listed a $500 contribution from Vicki Long, of Temecula. Cashman loaned his campaign $2,000 on Dec. 27.

Under nonmonetary contribution, Cashman listed receiving $1,516 in signs and campaign literature from the slate's "Committee for the Incorporation of Wildomar/Support Council Candidates Cashman Moore Underdown."

Under his expenditures, Cashman listed reimbursing himself $113.14 for a campaign photo and a $38 check printing charge from Bank of America.

Talking about the slate's fundraising, Cashman said there had been plans for more slate-specific fundraisers but events that had been planned as fundraisers ended up turning into cityhood promotions.

Cashman said that wasn't a bad thing as all of the slate candidates put the cityhood vote first. To make sure his campaign doesn't run into the red, he plans on asking for more contributions from personal friends.

Talking about the meeting with the developers and landowners, Cashman said it was structured like an interview, with the candidates answering questions on their views on development and other cityhood-related topics.

There was no mention of specific details related to future projects.

"There was no, 'We need this, we need that. What do you think?,'" he said.

Scott Farnam

Farnam, a 41-year-old general contractor, raised the third highest dollar amount, $4,285. His largest contribution was $2,000 from B&B Contractors of Chino, which is a construction company that he said he's done some work for. He also received contributions from DH Holding, Golden Triangle and Oxman.

Instead of holding a fundraiser, Farnam sent an e-mail blast to his list of contacts and friends asking for contributions.

Because Farnam has been involved with construction, contracting and real estate, his list of contacts is diverse and relatively deep-pocketed.

Regarding the meeting with Golden Triangle, Oxman and DH Holdings, Farnam said he made it a point to stress to the developers that their endorsement or his acceptance of financial contributions was not going to affect his decision-making if elected.

"When I first stepped in the door, that conversation was had between us," he said.

Farnam used the same company as Swanson for his signs, Colby Poster Printing Company of Los Angeles, buying $900 worth. He spent $200 on buttons with Snyder and he's been collecting the buttons handed out by all the other candidates.

Bridgette Moore

Moore, 40, the manager of a small business, raised the fourth highest amount, $4,070. She listed contributions from Oxman, DH Holdings and Golden Triangle in addition to $300 from John Lloyd of Wildomar. Moore, like Cashman, listed $1,516 in nonmonetary contributions from the slate committee, which provided campaign literature and signs. Moore also gave herself a $1,000 loan.

Under her expenditures, she listed $2,000 paid to the slate committee's account.

Moore said her fundraising has mostly been limited to friends and family.

Talking about taking contributions from the group of developers and landowners, she said, "Just because we did accept donations we're not tied to those people."

It was important to receive the funding they provided, Moore said, because cityhood is an important message.

"You need to get that message out with yard signs and fliers and the way to do that is with money. Which we reported appropriately," she said.

Tim Underdown

Underdown, a 47-year-old equipment mechanic, raised the fifth highest amount, $2,801. He listed contributions from Oxman, DH Holdings and Golden Triangle and he gave his campaign a $500 contribution and a $100 contribution.

Under nonmonetary contributions, he listed $1,516 from the slate's committee for events, literature and signs and $84 from Kristin Lloyd for domain name registration and Web hosting of his campaign Web site.

Under expenditures, he listed a $600 payment to himself (listed as a returned contribution) and $600 to the Riverside County registrar of voters for filing fees.

Underdown said he accepted the contributions from Oxman, DH Holdings and Golden Triangle because he talked with them and found out that they were focused on supporting cityhood.

"They felt we (the candidates who received contributions) were the leaders of the community. I was made to feel like I am a leader. They feel I can make smart decisions," he said Friday.

Underdown said it makes sense that developers and landowners would want the candidates they feel will do the best job serving as the inaugural city council.

"And we made that perfectly clear to them that they realize by contributing and letting us use their property for their signs that there would be no favoritism," he said.

While the slate candidates have put up some signs as large as the signs placed by Swanson and Farnam, Underdown said they don't have as many.

"We've got 18 and they've got 50 or so. They've got them everywhere," he said.

Contact Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or aclaverie@californian.com.