The deadline to raise money during the first quarter of the year ended yesterday, meaning candidates for Mayor and City Council of Saint Petersburg have until April 10th to report what they raised during the first three months (or less, if they filed during the quarter) of 2013.
Really the only candidates local political observers will be parsing are those of mayoral candidate Rick Kriseman and District 4 candidates Darden Rice and David McKalip.
So what did Kriseman, Rice and McKalip need to have raised during their first months on the campaign trail?
For Kriseman, $25,000 is the minimum he needed to have raised for the quarter to be viewed as a success. If he raised more than that, say $50K, it will go a long way to answering those critics who say Kriseman is having difficulty breaking through in his challenge of Bill Foster.
Mind you, $50K is nowhere near what 2009 mayoral candidates Deveron Gibbons and Scott Wagman raised during that campaign, but they didn’t win, either. Kriseman doesn’t need to raise the kind of money Gibbons and Wagman raised, but he can’t post an 18K turd, either.
As for the City Council candidates, it wouln’t be a surprise if Rice outraised not only McKalip, but also Kriseman. It’s pretty certain Rice shot past $25,000 raised, but she’s always been a prodigious fundraiser. It will be reassuring to see Rice receive some checks from donors who have not previously contributed to her. Perhaps a few checks from some Downtown Partnership types.
Rice’s likely opponent, David McKalip, is the wildcard. Did he raise any money? Does he even need to since he can’t likely self-finance? It would be impressive if McKalip raised $10,000 from donors, but I can’t imagine he got there.
McKalip has to realize that fundraising isn’t just about the money, it’s about the campaign infrastructure which goes with raising money. If he isn’t raising money, critics such as myself will contend he doesn’t have much of a campaign infrastructure.
