The 12 candidates vying for Pima County supervisor seats have raised over $440,000 through the first six months of 2016 and spent nearly $119,000, campaign reports submitted to the county for the period ending June 30 show.
Including fundraising and spending before Jan. 1, those figures are roughly $480,000 and $135,000 respectively.
Steve Christy, who is one of three District 4 Republicans looking to win the seat that GOP incumbent Ray Carroll said he is vacating, has been both the top fundraiser and spender. The retired businessman and community activist has brought in $138,000 and spent a little less than $64,000 over the most recent reporting period, which is nearly half of the total spent by all candidates so far.
Nearly half of his contributions came from 11 donors who gave $5,000 or more. The maximum individual donation allowed for supervisor races is $6,250.
The two Republicans he’ll face in the August primary, John Backer and Marla Closen, have raised $4,600 and $17,700 respectively since starting their campaigns, giving Christy a substantial fundraising advantage. The District 4 Green Party candidate, Josh Reilly, filed paperwork stating that his campaigns does not intend to raise or spend more than $500, as did the party’s other supervisor candidate, Martin Bastidas, who is the only general election competitor against District 5 incumbent Democrat Richard Elías.
Democrat Sharon Bronson, the District 3 incumbent, isn’t far behind Christy with $114,000 raised so far, nearly all of it over the last six months. Much of it — 38 percent — came from seven donors who gave over $5,000.
In the general election, Bronson will face GOP candidate Kim DeMarco, who has raised nearly $46,000, 65 percent of which came from five large donors.
In District 1, incumbent Republican Ally Miller has raised roughly twice as much — $57,000 — as her primary challenger John Winchester, who has brought in nearly $29,000 so far. While Winchester was just $16,000 behind Miller in fundraising totals over the first six months of 2016, Miller had far more individual donors — about 130 to Winchester’s roughly 35.
For both Miller and Winchester, four donors accounted for 44 percent and 69 percent of their fundraising totals respectively.
Democrat Ramón Valadez, an incumbent who is facing no competition for his District 2 seat, has raised a little over $21,000. Elías has raised a little over $35,000, nearly $10,000 of which came from two large donors.
Loans, all of which were made or guaranteed by the respective candidates, made up just 3.5 percent of all contributions. Miller has loaned over $5,000 to hers, or nearly 9 percent of total contributions, and is the only incumbent running to have done so. More than 80 percent of Backer’s funds are loans made by the candidate, as are much smaller percentages for Closen’s and DeMarco’s.
All campaign fundraising reports are available online at electionfilings.pima.gov:8889.
