From John Hilliard in Sunday’s Globe.
[Ruthanne] Fuller is in the lead, having raised nearly $224,000 from November through July, with [Scott] Lennon coming in second with about $166,000 in fundraising. [Amy Mah] Sangiolo, who filed paperwork with the state in March declaring her intent to run for Mayor, has raised almost $37,000 from April through July, records show.
Three of the remaining candidates — [Eli] Katzoff, [Al] Cecchinelli, and Richard Saunders — combined have raised less than $2,500, while [Geoffery] Woodward has not reported any fundraising through the end of July, according to state records.
Best practices promotes the idea that should the candidate not be successful a pro rata return of donation makes the donor whole. This also performance bases candidate proficiency.
– and ‘solids’ are the new wave, services in lieu of donation…
We’ll know a lot more when we can see where the money came from. A key thing to look for… have any of these candidates lent money to their own campaign? That’s a perfectly legal tactic, but it would skew the numbers.
@ Mike Striar- if you look at Fullers Numbers of $1000 and $500 contributions – she has about $93,000 from outside of Newton and outside of Mass. Lennons numbers using the same criteria is about $22,000. Sangiolo is about $5500.
@ Mike Striar- if you look at all money they collected from outside of Newton/Outside of the State
Fuller – $105,810
Lennon $43,225
Sangiolo – $10,600
So Fuller may have collected more money overall – but the out of Newton/ Out of State Contributors can’t vote.
Shouldn’t there be an upset limit on the amount of cash that can be spent by individual candidates, on an election? If not,.. that candidate with the most money has an unfair advantage in getting a platform out. And perhaps it’s not what the best funded campaign might have to offer. And funding from out of state ( much less from outside the city ), is oh so much like funding from corporations and individuals ( like the Koch brothers ), that is put into campaigns which are not related to their local geography, or constituencies.
Blueprintbill, no need to try to cloud issues with tales of dark money. Surely you have friends and family that do not reside in Newton. Mine are spread out around the country.
Fuller’s out of state money came from named individuals either related or friends of the family. The money from MA outside of Newton is from the cities and towns surrounding us. Mostly it came from residents of Newton, as did Lennon’s.
Marti – . Over $100,000 from Family and Friends outside of Newton???
Wealthy people tend to know other wealthy people, so it doesn’t really surprise me that Ruthanne would be able to fundraise that much from friends and family (and that much outside of Newton).
Joanne, ever stirring the pot.
I would really like to shut down the “questionable” money” theory. It’s a distraction from the important issues involved in the Mayor’s race.
Fuller started receiving contributions in May, 2015 so she could receive them monthly for 26 months.
Fuller received around $30,000 from individuals in 10 states –
$9,500 from 1 family in MI
$7,000 from 1 family in IL
$4,000 from 1 family in TX
$3,500 from 4 individuals in NY
$3,000 from 3 individuals in UT
$1,000 each from CA and NJ
$ 500 each from ME, CO and VA
The rest came from in and around Newton. Not mysterious at all.
So Marti – Fuller announced in November of 2016 that she was running for Mayor. So what you are telling us is that she started collecting Money in 2015 so that she could get 3 years of large donations from her friends and family across the country? Interesting information to know that she was already adding to her Mayoral Campaign in 2015 when she hadn’t even announced and Warren had not even announced that he was not running for Mayor.
I stand by my Numbers – Fuller raised over $105,000 from Outside of Newton and Out of State.
And Marti – You stirred up this pot all by yourself.
Joanne– It certainly raises some eyebrows when any local candidate raises a large percentage of their campaign funds from outside of Newton. But it is perfectly legal, and I don’t think most voters really care about the source of campaign funds in a local election. I’m guessing [as Marti suggested] that Ruthanne probably has a lot of wealthy friends, and there’s nothing wrong with her asking them to contribute to her campaign.
Frankly, I was curious to see if Ruthanne lent the campaign any of her own money, because there are certain implications that can be extrapolated from that. Ultimately though, I don’t think this race is going to be determined exclusively by money. I think this city is very fortunate to have three excellent mayoral candidates. The candidate who articulates the best vision for Newton and convinces voters of their ability to deliver on that vision, will likely be the winner of this race.