With elections just over a week away, candidates have been filing their contributions to their campaign fund, with mayoral candidates John Duncan and Mike Donovan receiving the two highest contributions and City Council candidate Laura Wilkinson Sinton coming in third.
There are three mayoral candidates and six City Council candidates this year up for election on Nov. 5. Depending on who wins the mayoral race, there are two spots up for grabs on City Council, and of course, one spot for mayor as Mayor Richard Bailey terms out at the end of this year.
Council members Duncan, Donovan and Casey Tanaka are running for mayor.
Wilkinson Sinton, Andrew Gade, Amy Steward, Mark Fleming, Mark Warner and Christine Mott are all running for City Council.
The city has a local ordinance that contains stricter campaign requirements than the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) in some areas, according to the city’s financial disclosure information. For example, the ordinance prohibits cash contributions and requires campaign donations to be made via credit card or check, and expenditures of $5 or more must be itemized.
Contributions are not allowed to exceed $200 from a single source, but there is no limit on a candidate’s personal fund contributions to their campaign. They must report any personal fund contributions totaling $1,000 or more in the aggregate that they make in the last 90 days before an election.
The numbers
Each candidate has been filing their donations since the beginning of the year. Duncan has received the most contributions at just over $68,600, Donovan at around $29,300 and Wilkinson Sinton receiving just under $21,000.
Warner received the least amount of contributions at a total of $4,700 for the calendar year.
Duncan filed $57,200 in expenditures for the year, Donovan filed $24,000 and Wilkinson Sinton filed $19,200.
Fleming received $16,500 in total contributions, spending just under $16,000 for his run for City Council.
Tanaka received $14,400 for his run for mayor but $4,000 of his campaign fund is surplus from when he last ran for City Council in 2020, and he rolled over the money from that campaign. He spent just around $9,600 for his run.
Steward received just around $13,500, with $3,500 of that total coming from her own campaign account. She filed $9,700 in expenditures.
Gade totaled just over $6,800 in donations. He filed $6,600 in expenditures.
Mott received $5,700, spending $4,400 on her campaign.
Warner received $4,700, filing $4,500 in expenditures.
