Two candidates I’m interested in seeing winning are Bob Campbell and Rebecca Dawson.
Campbell has finance reports going all the way back to September. Since that month, he’s raised about $2,200. He has $1,200 of that still in the bank.
He has lots of what I assume are walking cards, for going door-to-door. He hasn’t gotten any yard signs yet, but since he doesn’t have a primary, he can wait until September/October.
A big problem for Bob is he’s going against incumbent Stacie Anderson, who’s raised nearly $8,400 so far and has spent hardly anything. She’s got all the Dem bigwigs lining up in her camp, including Raph Graybill.
It’s going to be tough to overcome that in Ward 5.
In Ward 2, it’s Dawson vs. incumbent Hess.
Dawson has raised just $400. Her biggest expenditure was printing up 5,000 mailers with a Utah firm.
Meanwhile, Hess has raised $7,400.
I find it interesting that for their first reports, both Anderson and Hess raised exactly the same amounts, $5,660. Both had the same expenditures during that time as well, for Act Blue fees and to pay Barbara Berens for bookkeeping and campaign compliance work.
Most of the donors for both are Democratic hack, either current or has-been.
The reason I point to these two candidates is because neither are getting an ounce of support from the Missoula County GOP. For the life of me, I cannot understand why that political party is just sitting on the sidelines.
More of the campaign finance reports are beginning to filter-in. One is from Ward 4’s Alan Ault. He’s raised $240 since his last report, which showed $0 raised. This time, he’s also loaned himself $100.
His opponent has raised $5,600 this period.
Engen’s report is now up.
He brought in another $11,000 this month. He has over $23,000 in the bank right now. (Elder has about $15,000 in the bank).
Emily Brock, Melanie Brock, the whole Checota clan, Susan Hay Patrick, the Lambros clan, CB Pearson, and Diane Sands all donated to him.
Can you imagine where these people would be if John Engen wasn’t mayor?
The mayor’s largest expenditure this period was $3,000 to Missoula’s Tenacious Campaigns for campaign consulting and voter outreach.
Campaign finance reports are due today.
Some candidates have filed early. One that I have my eye on is Daniel Carlino, who is winning the yard sign game, big time.
He filed his report a few days ago. Over the past month, he’s raised an extra $875 for his campaign. He spent about $1,500 this month, and has nearly $2,500 still in the bank.
Maggie Bornstein donated to him, as did Ben Darrow.
Carlino printed up another 160 signs this month, at a cost of about $1,200.
Engen’s handpicked challenger to Carlino is Dori Gilels.
After a stunningly slow start, she’s managed to raise over $3,400 so far. She’s spent $2,500 of that.
Goeff Badenoch and Fred Van Valkenburg are some donors that stood out to me.
Dori has spent $800 for 2,500 fundraising postcards. She doesn’t really care about creating Montana jobs, either. If she did, she’d have used a Missoula printer for the “150 Ecofriendly Yardsigns with Stakes. Friends of Dori for City Council,” but she didn’t.
Instead she gave that $1,200 to a company in Florida.
As a quick aside, I hope you tune into the City Club debate on August 8. I’m going to bring up all these Florida firms we love to pay so much to...and for what?
Mayoral Finances
Jacob Elder brought in about $1,500 this past month. He spent $2,000, and now has over $14,000 in the bank.
His biggest expenditure was $1,600 for 120 yard signs.
Shawn Knopff has raised $3,700 and has spent $3,100. He has $600 left in the bank.
All of Knopff’s funds come from loans to himself.
Knopff is another candidate that doesn’t care about creating Montana jobs. If he did, he’d spend his money in-state, preferably the community he lives in.
But he did not.
$1,500 went to a company in Texas for 300 yard signs. I can understand why he did this - Missoula companies charge exorbitant rates, and why not get twice the signs for the same money?
Does that make it right? And where the hell is he gonna put those 300 signs, anyways? He doesn’t have 300 donors...he doesn’t have any.
It’s sad to see the blind leading the blind when it comes to campaigns, but all new candidates do the same thing - waste money.
One of the most important things to realize is, if you don’t waste money...you don’t have to raise as much.
And when we say raise money, we really mean kiss the rich man’s ass - that’s what it is. It’s you putting yourself in someone’s pocket.
Engen’s finance report isn’t available yet, nor is mine. There ain’t nothing to write home about with mine - I’ve raised $150.
I find it quite interesting that both Ellie Hill and Adam Hertz donated to Mike Nugent, Ward 4. $50 and $100, respectively.
I can’t imagine why anyone would donate to this daddy’s boy. Oh, that’s right...influence.