Pepper got $450,000 from parents

Howard Wilkinson reports in Saturday's Enquirer:

Democrat David Pepper, the winning candidate in the Hamilton County commissioner’s race, got a late infusion of $450,000 in cash from his parents.

Pepper said he had to do it, because it was the only way to catch up with the fundraising of his opponent, Republican incumbent Phil Heimlich.

“We decided to fight fire with fire,’’ Pepper said. “It comes down to a choice of whether you choose to lose or you choose to compete. We chose to compete.’’

A record $2.7 million was raised by the two candidates, with Heimlich raising $1.390 million and Pepper raising $1.341 million, according to post-election campaign finance reports filed Friday with the Hamilton County Board of Elections.

Up until mid-October, Heimlich held a substantial fundraising advantage over Pepper. Pepper said that, by that time, he could see Heimlich’s campaign still making large television ad buys and said he decided to ask his parents for help.

“There really aren’t any other people I would feel comfortable asking for that kind of money,’’ he said.

His mother, Frances Pepper, gave her son’s campaign $350,000. His father, former Procter & Gamble chairman John Pepper, gave another $100,000.

The reports filed Friday – which covered the period from Oct. 19 through the Nov. 7 election – showed that Heimlich’s fundraising slowed considerably in the final weeks of the campaign, after leading Pepper by a substantial margin earlier.

In the final period, Heimlich had $242,042 in contributions, compared to $494,356 for Pepper.