There’s still three more days until the election, but fundraising for it is over. For those who have bombarded with email solicitations from campaigns and for the campaigns sending them, the sentiment is probably something to the effect of, good riddance.
Candidates in all races statewide turned in their final list of contributions yesterday. For Pinellas County Commission hopefuls Pat Gerard and Ed Hooper, the final push caught Gerard up to her opponent just a little.
From October 18 until the October 30 11:59 p.m. deadline, Gerard brought in just shy of $20,000. Hooper raised just $12,420. That brings their total campaign contributions to $200,411 and $241,381, respectively.
Both candidates have spent almost all of their cash. Gerard is left with just $876 in the bank and most of that will probably be used for her election night party at Buffalo Wild Wings in Largo Mall. Hooper has a little more cash to play with – $4,202 – but also has to fund an election night soiree. He’ll be at Ruth Eckerd Hall with Senator Jack Latvala and House candidate Chris Latvala.
Gerard’s final funding push was driven mostly by individual donors including maximum contributions from attorney Francoise Haasch and Clearwater retiree Charlene Goodman. Local unions for plumbers and operating engineers also kicked in $1,000.
Gerard also got substantial contributions from the Pinellas Coalition for Public Schools and GCS Energy Recovery of Pinellas, which currently runs the county’s waste to energy plant. Both groups donated $500 to Gerard’s campaign. GCS is currently suing the county to be reconsidered for a contract to continue services. The county had chosen another company to take over waste to energy operations.
One of the companies chosen for a final bidding process to replace GCS, Waste Management, donated $500 to Hooper’s campaign.
Both candidates spent hard during the last fundraising reporting period. Gerard spent just over $28,000 mostly to a Tennessee based company for “media.” Hooper spent even more, $57,876 – $35,000 on TV ads and $20,000 on mailers.
A little over 200,000 voters have already cast a ballot in this election. Republicans have a slight edge with 83,000 of the votes cast by members of their party. Democrats are bridging the gap as Early Voting draws to a close tomorrow with nearly 76,000 votes cast. Total voter turnout in the last midterm was at 51.4 percent in 2010. 137,112 Republicans cast ballots in that election while 115,646 Democrats voted. Voter turnout so far is 32 percent. Early voting turnout in 2010 was just 28 percent.
