News
Campaign Fizz: Today's Fundraising Numbers
This year's City Council races don't seem to be generating much heat. The incumbents are, predictably, far outraising their challengers. For example, Tom Rasmussen has raised $285,000,while his sole challenger, Dale Pusey, has yet to register his contact information with the city, let alone raise a single dollar.
For the money fight, you need to look at Referendum 1, the tunnel measure.
• The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce gave another $10,000 to Let's Move Forward, the pro-tunnel campaign, in late June, bringing the group's total contribution to $20,500. City council member Tim Burgess wrote a check for $1,000 at the end of the month as well, bringing his total contribution to $2,500.
• Overall, Let's Move Forward now has raised around $74,000 (from about 100 donors) to the anti-tunnel campaign's $68,000 (from well over 200 donors). However, the pro-tunnel camp has several times more money in the bank than Protect Seattle Now, the anti-tunnel camp. Adding together the money each campaign had in the bank at the end of May and the money they've raised so far, the pro-tunnel campaign could have as much as $33,000 in the bank, and the anti-tunnel campaign as much as $6,200. Those numbers are only approximate, however, because they don't account for any expenditures in June, which they don't have to report until next week.
• And while the campaign for this year's Families and Education Levy doesn't have a formal opponent, it's up against built-in anti-tax sentiment (at $231 million, the levy is twice the size of the previous on). Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and his wife Sheri contributed $25,000 on June 30 and cell-phone millionaire John Stanton kicked in $5,000 to the campaign on the same day. The total raised so far is $143,000.
For the money fight, you need to look at Referendum 1, the tunnel measure.
• The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce gave another $10,000 to Let's Move Forward, the pro-tunnel campaign, in late June, bringing the group's total contribution to $20,500. City council member Tim Burgess wrote a check for $1,000 at the end of the month as well, bringing his total contribution to $2,500.
• Overall, Let's Move Forward now has raised around $74,000 (from about 100 donors) to the anti-tunnel campaign's $68,000 (from well over 200 donors). However, the pro-tunnel camp has several times more money in the bank than Protect Seattle Now, the anti-tunnel camp. Adding together the money each campaign had in the bank at the end of May and the money they've raised so far, the pro-tunnel campaign could have as much as $33,000 in the bank, and the anti-tunnel campaign as much as $6,200. Those numbers are only approximate, however, because they don't account for any expenditures in June, which they don't have to report until next week.
• And while the campaign for this year's Families and Education Levy doesn't have a formal opponent, it's up against built-in anti-tax sentiment (at $231 million, the levy is twice the size of the previous on). Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and his wife Sheri contributed $25,000 on June 30 and cell-phone millionaire John Stanton kicked in $5,000 to the campaign on the same day. The total raised so far is $143,000.
