Really only two races of interest here, SBOE 5 and SBOE 10. Let’s take a look.
http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/php/summary.php?rn=458837&form=COH
Totals From Report For Rebecca L. Bell-Metereau
Filed on: July 15 2010
Covering the Period February 21, 2010 Through June 30, 2010
| Total Unitemized Contributions: | $8,790.51 |
| Total Political Contributions: | $69,779.06 |
| Total Unitemized Expenditures: | $79.17 |
| Total Expenditures: | $29,172.85 |
| Total Unitemized Pledges (Schedule B1 or B2) | $170.00 |
| Total Contributions Maintained As Of The Last Day Of The Reporting Period | $43,076.61 |
| Total Principal Amount Of All Outstanding Loans As Of The Last Day of the Reporting Period | $0.00 |
| Total Unitemized Loans: | $0.00 |
http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/php/summary.php?rn=457461&form=COH
Totals From Report For Kenneth B. Mercer
Filed on: July 14 2010
Covering the Period February 21, 2010 Through June 30, 2010
| Total Unitemized Contributions: | $535.00 |
| Total Political Contributions: | $6,675.00 |
| Total Unitemized Expenditures: | $45.87 |
| Total Expenditures: | $24,969.83 |
| Total Unitemized Pledges (Schedule B1 or B2) | $0.00 |
| Total Contributions Maintained As Of The Last Day Of The Reporting Period | $1,720.77 |
| Total Principal Amount Of All Outstanding Loans As Of The Last Day of the Reporting Period | $0.00 |
| Total Unitemized Loans: | $0.00 |
Not a bad haul at all for Bell-Metereau. SBOE districts are enormous, twice the size of State Senate districts, so that money will only go so far, but in context, it’s quite impressive. Mercer presumably had a few bucks lying around from his previous campaign, and I daresay he’ll depend more on the partisan lean of this district to win rather than any actual campaigning. But if he does plan to run a race, he’ll need to find the money for it first.
http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/php/summary.php?rn=458836&form=COH
Totals From Report For Judith A. Jennings
Filed on: July 15 2010
Covering the Period January 01, 2010 Through June 30, 2010
| Total Unitemized Contributions: | $8,876.61 |
| Total Political Contributions: | $54,600.81 |
| Total Unitemized Expenditures: | $40.29 |
| Total Expenditures: | $26,214.86 |
| Total Unitemized Pledges (Schedule B1 or B2) | $150.00 |
| Total Contributions Maintained As Of The Last Day Of The Reporting Period | $36,406.78 |
| Total Principal Amount Of All Outstanding Loans As Of The Last Day of the Reporting Period | $0.00 |
| Total Unitemized Loans: | $0.00 |
http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/php/summary.php?rn=458786&form=COH
Totals From Report For Marsha L. Farney
Filed on: July 15 2010
Covering the Period April 04, 2010 Through June 30, 2010
| Total Unitemized Contributions: | $0.00 |
| Total Political Contributions: | $17,975.00 |
| Total Unitemized Expenditures: | $10.75 |
| Total Expenditures: | $101,875.04 |
| Total Unitemized Pledges (Schedule B1 or B2) | $0.00 |
| Total Contributions Maintained As Of The Last Day Of The Reporting Period | $4,049.86 |
| Total Principal Amount Of All Outstanding Loans As Of The Last Day of the Reporting Period | $0.00 |
| Total Unitemized Loans: | $0.00 |
Jennings has another decent Democratic haul. Note that Farney’s totals only cover three months while Jennings’ span six; this is because Farney was in a primary runoff that she won in April. However, if you add her contributions raised in the previous three periods to this, she collected $44,276 for the six months, meaning that Jennings still out-raised her.
You may also notice the large sum Farney reported spending in this period. In fact, she spent an equal or greater amount in the two prior periods as well, and going back to the start of the year has dropped nearly $400K on this race. Almost all of that is reported on the Schedule G form, which is for “Political Contibutions Made From Personal Funds”. The disclaimer on each item is “Reimbursement for political contributions intended”. In short, she’s loaned herself all this money but hopes to get future contributors to pay it back. It’s still money spent, but if you look at her most recent form, the vast majority of these expenditures were made in April; in other words, they were runoff expenses, and thus aimed at a limited audience. If she’s spent that much so far to get nominated, it stands to reason she’ll spend at least as much to get elected, and while as I’ve said there’s a difference between raising money and spending it, that will still be of great use to her. That said, Jennings clearly has the advantage in the breadth of her campaign.
There is a third race that we’re all watching for the SBOE, of course, and that’s Michael Soto’s race in SBOE 3. Here’s Soto’s report – he raised $11K and has about $8K on hand. I didn’t add his report in like the others because he’s running in a strong D district – it’s about ten points more Democratic than SBOE 5 is Republican – and as such, I didn’t even bother to look up his opponent’s name. But here it is for your perusal nonetheless.
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