Orange County Register

Update 2:15 p.m. Thursday: Still no new spending by ACT.

In the 72nd Assembly District special election, county Supervisor Chris Norby has been getting pounded not only by fellow Republican Linda Ackerman’s campaign but also by an independent expenditure group called Alliance for California’s Tomorrow.

However, the Ackerman-friendly ACT has suddenly gone quiet.

The group - whose donors include Indian tribes, hospital and pharmaceutical interests, the state Chamber of Commerce, and the man who wants to build an NFL stadium in the city of Industry - has spent $130,000 on behalf of Ackerman since Oct. 19. Most weekdays, it has spent money on the campaign - often two or three times a day - but the Secretary of State’s Web site shows that since shelling out money for a poll on Friday, it has not spent a dime. That’s the first time the group has been quiet for two consecutive workdays since getting into the race.

This could be a simple anomaly - more likely the group has run out of money or, best case scenario for Norby, the poll showed that the race is out of reach for Ackerman.

This is expected to be a low-turnout election - probably well under 20 percent, with more than half the ballots cast by mail. Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said that as of this afternoon he’d mailed 80,531 ballots and gotten 20,178 back, so the window of opportunity for making up ground is shrinking.

I checked the daily late-contribution updates - which only include contributions of more than $1,000 - and have come up with $153,000 raised by Norby, including a loan of $40,000. Ackerman, meanwhile, is showing about $176,000 raised - and that’s besides the $130,000 spent by ACT.

So if Ackerman is unable to overcome Norby’s initial advantage in name recognition, it won’t be due to fiscal disadvantage.

I called ACT’s consultant, Jim Nygren, to ask, among other things, if that group was done spending money on the race. After discussing with his clients whether to talk about the campaign, he told me he was directed not to comment.

Click here for the Register’s voters guide on all the candidates.

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