Let’s go to the press releases for the initial hype. Here’s Mayor Parker’s announcement of her fundraising haul for the July report.
Mayor Annise Parker
Houston Mayor Annise Parker has raised more than $2.2 million for her re-election campaign since February, with the support of nearly 2,000 individual donors and organizations and without loaning her campaign any personal funds.
Since February, Mayor Parker has received the endorsement of more than 2,500 individuals and 27 organizations so far, ranging from the Houston Police Officers Union to Harris County Council of Organizations, from labor unions to business groups, and from Houstonians of every walk in life. For a complete list of endorsements, visit www.anniseparker.com/supporters.
Mayor Parker’s Facebook community numbers 56,824 and she has 18,821 followers on Twitter.
“I am inspired by the thousands of Houstonians who are coming together to keep Houston the best place in America to live, work and raise a family,” said Parker.
“Mayor Parker has changed the way our city does business for the better,” said Campaign Chair Gilbert Garcia. “Under her leadership, we’re better at fighting crime, we’re working more efficiently and we’re creating more jobs than anywhere else in America.”
From February 1 through June 30, 2013, Mayor Parker received $2,212,626.01 in contributions from 1,872 donors, 1,783 of them individuals. The Mayor has spent $639,843.21, leaving her with cash on hand of $2,481,815.00 when added to funds she already had in the bank when the city fundraising season began February 1.
Here’s Mayor Parker’s finance report. I have not gone through it yet because it is 701 pages long, but you get the idea. It’s a strong sum, nearly identical in sum to her July 2011 report, and it leaves her well positioned for the campaign ahead.
As for Ben Hall, I did not get a press release myself, but the Chron did. Here it is:
Ben Hall
Houston, TX – Houston Mayoral candidate Ben Hall will report tomorrow the largest campaign war chest for a challenger to an incumbent mayor in the history of the city. Hall’s campaign had available more than $2.01 million for the period ending June 30th, his campaign report will show.
The unprecedented filing comes on the heels of tremendous grassroots support mounting for Hall, with the recent endorsements of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, the Communications Workers of America, AFSCME and the African American Police Officers League.
“I am so grateful to the hundreds of donors, the professional organizations and the scores of pastors, ministers and community activists who have rallied to our call for real leadership for Houston,” Hall said. “We can’t afford yet another term for a professional politician who has run out of ideas and run out of vision for the future.
“Houston sits on the precipice of greatness,” Hall continued. “The people of this city deserve a mayor with the vision and plan to take us to that level.”
Incumbent Mayor Annise Parker narrowly defeated two underfunded opponents in her last campaign.
“Incumbents have obvious advantages when it comes to fundraising – especially those who have held power in city hall for almost two decades,” said the Treasurer of Hall’s Specific Purpose Committee former Judge Alvin Zimmerman. “We fully expect the mayor to report a high number. But what she won’t report is any enthusiasm among voters for yet another term.”
The reports will show the Hall campaign had available more than $2.01 million through direct contributions, in-kind contributions and loans from Hall. The campaign’s cash on hand as of June 30 was $1,155,509.60.
The campaign will file two reports tomorrow: A C/OH report will show personal expenditures (loans) by Hall of $152,921.31 and an S-PAC (All for Hall Committee) with the bulk of the campaign activity.
“Tomorrow” means Tuesday, that is to say today. As of yesterday, the All For Hall Committee report had been filed, and it showed $152k in spending. Not sure why the press release says the S-PAC report will show the bulk of the activity, but whatever. At first glance, this looks quite impressive. However, first glances can be deceiving:
Hall’s filing shows his campaign raised just $311,213 as of June 30. The vast majority of the campaign’s funding came from $1.55 million in loans from Hall. Here is the campaign’s Sunday fundraising press release.
Here’s the filing referenced in that post, which appears to be an updated version of the S-PAC filing that I pulled from the City of Houston site. Needless to say, there’s a big difference between raising $2 million, which is how that Houston Politics post initially characterized Hall’s report, and raising $311K. As for the claim about enthusiasm, I can say that Hall had 73 pages of contributors listed. At four contributor per page, that’s 292 donors, though several were repeated, and a few were from outside Houston, compared to the 1,783 givers that the Parker campaign claimed. Make of that what you will. The Chron story goes into a bit more detail.
As for the bit players, Don Cook reported $10K raised, though about $4500 of that was in kind ($3300 from Gary Yokie for consulting, and $1246 from himself for collecting petition signatures), and Eric Dick raised no money but spent $11K from personal funds, including $4500 for yard signs. You know what that means. No other Mayoral candidate had a report up as of yesterday.
I’m still working on downloading reports from other candidates, and putting together my Election 2013 page. I’ve been spending time with the family this past week, so I’m a bit behind on these matters. In the meantime, Stace and Greg have totals and commentaries on what has been filed so far, so check them out. I’ll have more detailed looks at the reports in the next week or so. Let me know if there’s anything specific you want me to look for.
UPDATE: Missed the report for Victoria Lane, who raised $4K and spent $2K.
This is going to be an interesting election year. Didn’t Parker raise about the same amount last year against a few unfunded candidates?
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