Voter registration for this fall's municipal and school board elections closes a week from tomorrow, so get thee to a voter registration form (PDF)!
I'd like to take a look at candidate money in 2007, but I haven't had time to read the reports yet. Can you help?
We should certainly give the Orange County Board of Elections some kudos, along with the County web staff, for some great improvements to the content available on their web site. Right now they have campaign finance reports from 6 of the 8 candidates who plan to spend over $3,000. Those who plan to spend less do not have to file detailed reports.
Unless this is a clerical error, these candidates should have filed and didn't: Matt Czajkowski and Will Raymond (although he did file a report for the previous quarter); while one candidate didn't have to file but did anyway: Mia Burroughs. You can download a PDF of each candidate's report at http://www.co.orange.nc.us/elect/2006filings.asp
(I know it says 2006, just ignore that.)
Issues:
Comments
Bill Strom raised the most
Bill Strom raised the most money, $6,890. He is limiting himself to spending $7,500 so he should be pretty much done with fundraising I think. He's spent $2,140 on the standard stuff- signs, mail, etc and has $5,646 on hand.
Notable contributors included:
-Local NAACP Chair Fred Battle
-School Board candidate Mia Burroughs
-Former Councilman Joe Capowski
-Planning Board chair George Cianciolo
-Former Councilman Bob Epting
-Mayor Kevin Foy
-Former Councilman Joe Herzenberg
-Public Art Advocate and community leader Janet Kagan
-Former OCDP Chair Barry Katz
-Councilman Mark Kleinschmidt
-Former Councilman Alan Rimer
-Rev. Robert Seymour
-Councilman Bill Thorpe
-Former Councilwoman Dorothy Verkerk
-Former Mayor Rosemary Waldorf
I will do this same sort of analysis for the other reports that have been filed.
Sally Greene raised the next
Sally Greene raised the next most, $5,891 for this reporting cycle. She had $963 on hand at the start for a total of $6,854. She spent $2,784 on signs, mail, her website, and a festifall booth, leaving her with $4,070 on hand. She is almost limiting herself to spending $7,500 so shouldn't need to raise too much more money.
Notable contributors included:
-Janet Kagan
-Joe Herzenberg
-Bob Epting
-Former Carrboro Alderman Braxton Foushee
-Joe Capowski
-Commissioner Mike Nelson
-OP poster and law professor Eric Muller
-Mark Kleinschmidt
-Rosemary Waldorf
-George Cianciolo
Also, I'm not going to go through and name all of them but Sally got a bunch of contributions from distinguished faculty members.
Thank you, Tom!
Thank you, Tom!
Note the major and important
Note the major and important change that begins this election cycle:
Cam Hill had the third
Cam Hill had the third highest fundraising total, raising $4,223 and spending $321, leaving him with $3,902 on hand. His expenditures were mail related.
Notable contributors included:
-Mark Kleinschmidt
-Bill Thorpe
-Joe Herzenberg
-Bob Epting
-Kevin Foy
I should also note that Strom and Hill both received contributions from downtown business owner Lex Alexander.
Strom, Greene, and Hill all received contributions from Gene Pease and Burwell Ware, two prominent neighborhood activists whose support helped them win four years ago.
Thanks, I had forgotten
Thanks, I had forgotten about that vast improvement in the voting process, Fred. The DTH had a good article about this earlier this week, but I can't find the link now.
Penny Rich raised the fourth
Penny Rich raised the fourth most. She took in $2,300 during the reporting period and had $95 cash on hand. She spent $1,536 on signs, postcards, and her website and now has $859 on hand.
She appears to have raised most of her money from family, including a $400 contribution and a $500 contribution from two family members. The $250 contribution limit does not apply to family.
Chapel Hill contributors included:
-Michael and Laura Brader-Araje
-Kevin and Ann Leibel
-Susan Jackson and David Knowles
Jim Ward raised no money!
Jim Ward raised no money! It's not due to lack of support though- George Cianciolo and I were joking after Planning Board Tuesday night that Jim would not take our money when we tried to write him checks.
He's not taking contributions for now. As a two term incumbent who is well liked and has a good record, he can probably get away with that. It will be an interesting experiment and certainly not something I would suggest to candidates for the most part, but Jim is content to run on his record and I think that's cool.
So it will be interesting to see what the story with Czajkowski and Raymond's reports are. I am not going to analyze Kevin, Mia, or Lydia's reports.
And as always full disclosure: I am working hard for Bill, Sally, and Cam.
I should have said Sally is
I should have said Sally is 'also' limiting herself to $7,500 in spending rather than 'almost.'
As an example of why we
As an example of why we should all be reading these financial reports for ourselves, I went through the list of Bill Strom's contributors to find out what made those Tom chose to highlight so "notable."
Interestingly, while he did include Rosemary Waldorf noted as ex-mayor not as realtor, he didn't list any of the 5 other developers/realtors. Surely contributions from Carol Ann Zinn and Tim Toben are notable.
I'd also say the contributions from several of my book group members are notable but that would be personal bias.
I included people who I felt
I included people who I felt hold or held prominent positions in civic life Terri. Clearly it is a subjective list and I made no claims to the contrary.
I didn't say you did Tom.
I didn't say you did Tom. That's why I began by noting we should all look at the reports for ourselves. I had never seen a campaign financial report before this morning. Now I know and will use this as another criteria for making my decisions in those elections in which I am allowed to vote.
FYI, Someone seems to have
FYI,
Someone seems to have vandalized all of the signs at Weaver Dairy & Erwin Rd. Went by about 8:15 AM and it looks like they had all been sprayed with something orange. They were all still readable but some seemed to have more orange on them than others.
Also, some signs that were on Weaver Dairy at the light and opposite the drive into ECHHS seem to have disappeared. Although there is no evidence that students were involved the signs were right by the sidewalk leading from the Cedars falls lot. I asked Principal Thaden if he might remind students that while some may view election signs as a visual blight, they represent individuals who are taking the time to participate in our democratic process and he said he would.
I'd love to take credit for
I'd love to take credit for disclosing more than required but, in fact, I have raised more than $3000. Although I have filed the appropriate paper work, the busy folks at the BOE haven't changed my designation on the web. I'll send a note to them about that momentarily.
I have been limiting donations to $100 or less. I've really been grateful for the support I've gotten from friends and family and thrilled by the 39 donations I have from Chapel Hill/Carrboro residents to date.
Will and Matt's reports are
Will and Matt's reports are up now.
Will received $286 from a total of six contributors. He had $375 on hand and only spent $9 so he now has a total of $652.
His contributors were:
-Anli Shundi
-Phil Duchastel
-Bora Zivkovic
-David Mozier
-Mark Peters
-Xan Gregg
Will stated a fundraising goal of $5,000 on his website a few weeks ago so still has a ways to go. I know a lot of folks who contributed to him last time don't support him this time so he will have a tap into some new sources to reach his goal.
Matt didn't receive any contributions. He had $982 on hand and spent $848, leaving him with $134. His expenditures were for his half page ad, website design, and photographic services.
Tom, What is Mike Nelson
Tom,
What is Mike Nelson paying you a salary for? Is there any conflict with your Sierra Club responsibilities?
Nelson has been contributing to many candidates out of his campaign funds. Are the contributions to Greene, et. al. from those funds? They appear to be reported as personal donations in the town council filings.
I think it is odd to take large amounts of out of state PAC money and then give it to legislator, governor, and possibly town council candidates (There is no report due yet from Nelson which covers the current town council candidate filings). I guess this is one way to buy influence/support/access.
M
(just noticed that we were
(just noticed that we were composing posts at the same time)
Mike paid me last spring to
Mike paid me last spring to help him set up his e-mail newsletter for County Commissioner updates and to plan some outreach events with N. Orange constituents who he had not previously represented during his time in office. That work finished I think in May and I have not been doing any work for his Senate campaign.