Quan lost ton of cash in re-election bid as Oakland mayor

Mayor Jean Quan and her husband Floyd Huen, left, are greeted by her campaign chair Sandre Swanson, right, as they arrive to the election night party for incumbent Oakland Mayor Jean Quan held at Scott's Seafood Restaurant in Oakland, CA, on Tuesday, November 4, 2014. less Mayor Jean Quan and her husband Floyd Huen, left, are greeted by her campaign chair Sandre Swanson, right, as they arrive to the election night party for incumbent Oakland Mayor Jean Quan held at Scott's ... more Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Quan lost ton of cash in re-election bid as Oakland mayor 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan lost more than just her job when she was defeated in her bid for re-election — she dropped a boatload of cash on the deal as well.

Campaign finance reports show that Quan spent a whopping $112,000 of her own money on her ill-fated run for a second term. Quan put in $80,000 as a starter, then upped the ante with another $32,000 in the final week of the race. We’re told she and her husband even dipped into their retirement funds.

In all, Quan’s money represented more than a third of the $226,450 she had raised by mid-October, the last fully reported period on file at the city clerk’s office.

Quan’s mayoral salary was $183,395 a year, but she took a voluntary 25 percent pay cut for part of her tenure.

Quan, who is expected to leave soon for a vacation to Europe, did not return our calls. But at Monday’s swearing-in of her successor, Libby Schaaf, the former mayor was overheard telling guests, “I’m looking for a job — something interesting and meaningful.’’

She added that she hoped to work for at least “a couple of more years.’’

In fact, sources tell us she’s looking to land a job in education — a subject near and dear to the onetime school board member’s heart — after which she may run again for an at-large seat on the City Council.

In an effort to help Quan retire her debts — and to signal that there were no hard feelings — Schaaf lent her name as a co-hostess for a recent fundraiser for the ex-mayor at the Chabot Space Center.

Schaaf, however, did not attend the event.

“That would just have been too awkward,” said one source close to the new mayor.

By the way, Quan isn’t the only Oakland candidate who spent big time in the race, only to come up short.

Records show that City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, who finished second to Schaaf, spent $80,000 of her own money. Attorney Dan Siegel put $125,000 into his campaign, health executive Bryan Parker self-contributed $115,000 and San Francisco State Professor Joe Tuman kicked in $8,000 for his losing cause.

And Schaaf? She got a bargain — contributing $1,050 to her winning campaign.

Payback: After getting an earful from the public, Contra Costa County supervisors are expected to roll back the 33 percent pay raise they recently voted themselves.

“We are putting it on the agenda next Tuesday,” said Supervisor John Gioia. Based on his conversations with fellow supervisors, Gioia said he’s confident that “the raise is going to be rescinded.”

Gioia said the supes may try to pass a smaller raise, but added, “I don’t know what that may be.”

The supervisors kicked over a hornet’s nest when — after nearly eight years without raises — they voted 4-1 last fall to pump up their annual pay to $129,227 from $97,483.

The move prompted a petition drive by an unlikely alliance of public worker unions and antitax groups, which collected 39,000 signatures for a repeal — more than enough to put the matter on the ballot.

Gioia conceded that the referendum would probably have qualified, and that given the chance, voters would have approved taking back the raises, hands down.

By the way, here’s how the current $97,483 pay stacks up against salaries for some other Bay Area supervisors:

•Alameda County: $147,580

•San Francisco: $110,858

•Marin County: $108,784

•Napa County: $84,198.

Loading up: Just hours before being sworn in to his historic fourth term, Gov. Jerry Brown raised the stakes in his budget battle with University of California President Janet Napolitano by appointing his legislative affairs secretary to the UC Board of Regents.

The appointment of Gareth Elliott, 44, comes just weeks after the regents, with backing from Napolitano, approved a plan to raise tuition 5 percent a year for the next five years if UC doesn’t get more money from the state.

Those who know him say Elliott brings more than just loyalty to Brown to the table. Elliott, who also worked with former state Sens. Don Perata and Alex Padilla, is considered to have real legislative smarts.

Brown still doesn’t hold majority sway with the 26-member Board of Regents. But the appointment of Elliott and his earlier naming of former Assembly Speaker John Pérez to the board signal the governor is bracing for a longer political struggle that eventually could determine whether Napolitano keeps her job.

“That’s the biggest hammer of all,” one regent in Brown’s corner told us privately.

Show me the money: Some of San Francisco’s heaviest hitters are kicking off the new year with a $500-a-head reelection fundraiser Friday night for Mayor Ed Lee at the Hilton Hotel’s Grand Ballroom on Kearny Street.

Co-hosts include Chronicle columnist and former Mayor Willie Brown, Chinatown powerhouse Rose Pak, lobbyist Marcia Smolens, developer Lawrence Lui and lawyer (and longtime Gov. Jerry Brown confidant) Jeremiah Hallisey.