No big names on Ford's donor list

Populist candidate Rob Ford has built his campaign war chest $20 at a time.

A list of donors to Ford’s campaign — released Thursday — is anything but a “Who’s Who” of Toronto elite and political movers and shakers.

In fact, of the 2,800 donors listed, most names — many of them representing ethnic communities — are not recognizable.

The Ford campaign had a banner month in August when 600 donations poured in — far more, at the $20 and $25 level than those at $1,000 or more.

Ford spokeswoman Adrienna Batra said the list represents $690,000 to Oct. 12, with about $15,000 to $20,000 coming in on average a day.

“You see a lot of $25 donations, a lot of $100 donations...these are the average taxpayers and the average voter who wants to change City Hall,” she said.

Joe Pantalone released his campaign donor list — totalling $850,000 — Wednesday.

But the George Smitherman camp did not respond to requests from the Toronto Sun Thursday as to when they might do the same.

Word has it that their list won’t be revealed until well after Monday’s election.

Batra suspects that Smitherman — one of the “chief conductors of the gravy train for so many years” — will have all the lobbyists, political insiders and the downtown elites on his donations list.

“Perhaps he isn’t willing to share (this) with the public prior to election day,” she said. “There has been a severe lack of transparency with his campaign and it will be no different if he becomes mayor of Toronto.”