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The eight remaining candidates in Richmond’s mayoral race reported raising a combined $294,000 from June 3 to June 30. Candidates’ finance reports, detailing donors and campaign expenditures, were due last Friday.
We sifted through them so you don't have to. Here are our five takeaways:
- Stoney sets the pace: The former Secretary of the Commonwealth reported raising $113,000 from 227 individual contributions, expanding his cash advantage over his seven opponents and bringing his total funds raised to date to $417,000. A closer look at Stoney’s list of donors shows a growing number of state Democrats writing checks to support his bid. They include Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw, Senators Janet Howell and Creigh Deeds, Delegates Sam Rasoul and Jennifer Boysko, as well as Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s political action committee, Common Good VA. Stoney also reported an $8,500 expenditure to Jones Mandel, a research firm that aided the campaigns of McAuliffe, Virginia Senator (and potential Veep) Tim Kaine and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.
- Jack Berry holds pat: The former Venture Richmond executive reported raising $51,000 from 180 donations. Berry’s campaign has about $170,000 on hand, good for best of the rest honors. He also remains the only candidate not named Levar, who, at this point, is positioned to have the cash reserves needed to reach voters en masse come September and October.
- Raw numbers can be deceiving: Your initial reaction to seeing that Jon Baliles, the West End City Council representative, reported raising $53,000, may have been ‘Woah! He really bounced back.’ A closer look shows he simply transferred $40,000 from his old council candidate committee to his new mayoral one. Baliles raised the bulk of those funds earlier this year, sure, but his raw total from June gives an inflated sense of his recent fundraising. The same goes for Bruce Tyler. The former West End council representative reported raising $40,175 in June, $25,000 of which came in the form of a personal loan from himself.
- Michelle Mosby’s money struggles continue: The Richmond City Council President raised a meager $5,000 from 36 donations. This after she raised $5,600 in the previous period. Nearly a year has past since Mosby declared herself a candidate, but her bid has found little financial support. With just over $7,000 on-hand, far less than the upper-tier candidates, she may be less of a factor in this race than many expected.
- Joe Morrissey and hyperbole: In a campaign release detailing the $30,500 he raised, the former state Delegate and Commonwealth’s Attorney took a swipe at other candidates, and singles out Stoney in particular. “Unlike my opponents, I have yet to hold a single campaign fundraising event, send out a single campaign donation solicitation, or send out a single email campaign request for donations,” Morrissey said in the release. “Contrast that with one of my opponents who has already sent out over 100,000 email requests asking for money. He spends as much time asking for money as I do campaigning door-to-door.” My inbox shows 81 messages from Stoney’s campaign from mid-April to today, far more than any other candidate has sent, but a few shy of 100,000.
The next fundraising period ends August 31.
