With a week to go before the January 31 deadline to qualify
for thousands of dollars in public campaign financing, city council and
mayoral candidates are scrambling for their final $5 contributions.
Only one candidate, Amanda Fritz—who’s running for the seat
Sam Adams is vacating to run for mayor—has been certified as a
publicly financed candidate. Two of her challengers have also turned in
over 1,000 $5 contributions and signatures, which are subject to
verification by the auditor’s office. John Branam turned in 1,001 on
January 18, but plans to collect more to be sure that 1,000 pass
muster.
On Tuesday morning, January 22, Charles Lewis—the first person
to start collecting contributions, starting last July—handed in
1,137. His campaign manager is confident they’ll be the second to
qualify.
In the same race, candidates Jeff Bissonnette and Chris Smith say
they’re at about 800 and “just over 1,000,” respectively.
In the new open seat created when Erik Sten announced his
resignation, one candidate is blasting his competition when it comes to
qualifying for public financing. Sten’s chief of staff, Jim Middaugh,
turned in 781 contributions on January 22—just eight days after
he started collecting them.
And in the mayor’s race, Sho Dozono reportedly passed the 1,500 mark
after a Saturday morning, January 19, campaign event (see story,
above), but had not turned any into the auditor’s office for
verification, at press time.