Dec 3, 2009 7:15 pm US/Pacific
Donor Wants No-Show Refund After Newsom Quits Race
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP) ―
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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom seen during his failed campaign for Governor of California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
It has been about a month since San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom dropped out of the governor's race. While Newsom would like to put that behind him, there is at least one campaign contributor who says the mayor has unfinished business to tend to.
The Newsom campaign burned through a lot of money during the push for the state's top office, and one contributor in San Jose thinks he got burned in the process. Now he is asking for a refund.
Geo Fanelli is an Environment and Energy Specialist in San Jose. When he got an invitation to a "Green for Newsom" event in L.A., Fanelli made the first political contribution of his life. The trouble came when Newsom dropped out of the race on the very day the event was scheduled to take place.
"They said you had to pay to attend this meet-and-greet, which I did. It was $500," said Fanelli. "I then booked a flight, flew down to LA that morning, and waited. Then at about 3:30 or so, 4 o'clock, the event was cancelled.'
Since the event was cancelled, Fanelli began contacting Newsom campaign-officials requesting a $500 refund. He got the run-around, he says, until finally they said 'no'.
"I'm not happy," Fanelli said. "It's $500. I'm a new business, a green business, so to speak, a green tech-type business and struggling in this economy. And $500 does mean a lot to me."
CBS 5 tried contacting the former Newsom-for-Governor campaign officials to no avail. On Thursday, when we caught-up with the Mayor himself, he didn't want to talk about it.
As for Gio Fanelli, he said he has learned a lesson from his first political contribution.
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