Some surprises in campaign fundraising reports

10349421_mCampaign disclosure reports were due on Tuesday, and there were a few surprises in the money game. For one, GOP lieutenant governor candidate Alaska state Sen. Lesil McGuire out-raised Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan, who is also running for the seat. On the Democratic side of the aisle for lieutenant governor, relatively unknown Bob Williams sort of out-raised Sen. Hollis French. In the race for governor, Democrat Byron Mallott raised more than expected, but he spent more than expected too. Read on for details.

  • Gov. Sean Parnell raised $407,253 this election cycle. He spent $76,220, leaving him with a hefty amount to spend on the race. Much of his staff so far, like Jerry Gallagher, have been working as volunteers. Such is the luxury of incumbency.
  • Byron Mallott raised an impressive $234,000, which included $40,000 from the Alaska Democratic Party. However, he spent $188,136 and owes $9,633, leaving him with $36,580 to spend. Much of the money he raised went to traveling around the state. A good chunk also went to staff. He spent $27,000 for management expenses to Vantage Point, a consulting firm. He paid his communications director campaign manger Claire Richardson more than $19,000, and thousands went to other staffers.
  • Independent Bill Walker raised $202,629, of which $29,000 is his own money. He spent $77,952 leaving him with $124,677, a respectable amount for a non-incumbent independent.
  • GOP  lieutenant governor candidate Alaska state Sen. Lesil McGuire raised more than $108,000 and spent about $35,000, leaving her with about $73,000 on hand. Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan raised about $91,000, and has $57,000 left to spend.
  • Another surprise: Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Bob Williams raised $63,000, about $12,000 more than was reported by Sen. Hollis French. If you compare debts, however, Williams has $41,324 left to spend and French has $51,700. (The numbers are a little tricky because French brought $22,605 to the campaign, about $8,000 of which are funds from a previous state Senate race. The rest came from when he began raising money in August to run for governor. He changed his candidacy to lieutenant governor in October.)
  • In another race that I’m watching, Republican Rep. Lindsey Holmes raised $42,152. She brought $4,800 into the campaign and still has more than $44,200 on hand. One of her Democratic challengers, Clare Ross, raised $31,427, which is pretty impressive for a political neophyte. Ross has $18,717 to spend. Matt Claman, who’s not a political neophyte and who is also running for Holmes’ seat, raised $34,663 and has $21,974 left over.

I’ll have more on these and other numbers on Wednesday.

UPDATED: The story was updated to include Bill Walker’s tally.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

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5 thoughts on “Some surprises in campaign fundraising reports

  1. Conley

    1. I like the Bristol Bay ad on this site. I am pro-development and a supporter of mining. The problem with Pebble is its location. We can’t allow this mine to ruin our salmon run of such world wide import. 2. Where did this Bob Williams guy come from ? He’s a blast from Palmer where I didn’t know Democrats even existed. Will be interested to learn more about him. As the campaign season progresses.

  2. WTF

    Once again, the stuff I care about is always up first on this site. The biggest surprise for me was the fact that Lesil McGuire outrthe Mayir of Alaska’s largest city. And she has more cash on hand than he does. To me, this is amazing and makes her worth watching. If you asked me before Christmas if this would have been the case, I would have given 2 – 1 odds against it. Congratulations Lesil. Next : Bob Williams did better than anyone expected. Hollis French should be ashamed by comparison. Alaskans are tired of the Berkowitz-French retreads and are looking for something new and more exciting. Williams appears to be at least that. Finally: Byron Mallott’s campaign looked like they deserved accolades at first. Then as you pointed out, they soent like drubken sailors. The guy raised more than 1/2 what Parnell did and the governor is sitting on almost 10 times as much cash for the election. The only financial campaign report worst than this is Mead Tredwell’s FEC report. The big winners in order are: McGuire, Williams and Parnell. Big losers: Parnell and French.

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