Ballpark lobby

San Diego — With the future of the downtown baseball stadium seemingly hanging in the balance, employees of the construction company that has a big contract to build it are shoveling thousands of dollars of campaign funds to San Diego city council members. Fifteen employees of Douglas E. Barnhart have each given between $100 to $250 to the campaign committee of Councilman Brian Maienschein; 11 Barnhart workers have contributed similar amounts to his colleague Jim Madaffer ... Fallen mayor Roger Hedgecock and wife Cindy have given $1000 to the Mayor Dick Murphy campaign committee. Other employees of Clear Channel, the radio-station chain where Hedgecock is employed as a talk-show host, also gave to Murphy. They included Michael Glickenhaus and Kevin McCarthy. Clear Channel has the contract to carry Padres games. Yet another media type and avid ballpark booster listed as giving to Murphy: San Diego Magazine owner James Fitzpatrick. Murphy used the money to repay himself the $75,000 he had lent his campaign last year.

From La Jolla, with love La Jolla's wealthy Evans family is bailing out of a 100-acre hotel and conference resort it wanted to expand in Newport Beach. A slow-growth measure passed by voters there last year has jeopardized plans for the 370-room project, reports the Orange County Register. Under the city's so-called Greenlight measure, Newport Beach voters get to decide the fate of any development that exceeds the city's general plan by more than 40,000 square feet, 100 daily car trips, or 100 homes. "The recent Newport Beach election results clearly indicated the community's support for a different hotel on the Newport Dunes property than the one we proposed," Tim Quinn, project manager for Evans Hotels, wrote the city council. The family, run by matriarch Anne Evans, owns the Bahia, Catamaran, and the Lodge at Torrey Pines, in addition to the historic Newport Dunes resort ... San Diego Unified School District member Ron Ottinger is sending out letters to a list of big-money donors who chipped in for 1998's MM school-bond campaign. This time, Ottinger wants the contributors, including contractors with business at the district, to ante up $250 a head for a ticket to a September American Jewish Committee banquet for school superintendent Alan Bersin. "I hope you will honor Alan Bersin's leadership, vision, and commitment by sponsoring a table for ten (10) guests in the amount of $2500." ... Charles Brandes, a wealthy La Jolla investment manager, has just bought an 11-room duplex penthouse on New York's tony Park Avenue for a record $22 million, reports the New York Observer. The five-bedroom condo, featuring a skylight over the limestone spiral staircase and a 360-degree view of Manhattan, had been offered at $29.5 million. Brandes and wife Linda are trying to sell a smaller unit on a lower floor in the same building for $15.5 million.

Reminder money The Neurosciences Institute of La Jolla, a center for Alzheimer's research, has received a $10 million challenge grant from New York's Lewis B. Cullman, who recently sold the At-A-Glance calendar company, reports the Chronicle of Philanthropy ... San Diego Gas & Electric is paying the City of San Diego $45,000 to promote the giant utility company in a quarterly city newsletter mailed out to 70,000 small businesses. According to a recent contract, SDG&E gets to put its logo on the "front page and back panel" of the publication and be able to include a "45-word article on the second or third page." In addition, the city "may provide other story placement locations and additional space for SDG&E articles and photos." ... Artist Joyce Cutler-Shaw is being paid $217,750 by the city to create public art for the new Mission Valley branch library ... National University is breaking out a new advertising campaign in an attempt to discard its "remedial" image, reports Adweek magazine. "We are presenting NU not as an alternative to traditional programs but as a better and more modern approach to higher education for the real world," said Millie Olson, president of San Francisco's Amazon ad agency, handling the account.

Contributor: Matt Potter