Candidates for elected city positions must submit accounts of their campaign’s fund-raising and expenditures to the registrar’s office at intervals throughout their campaigns. The final report, which was due on Dec. 5, details everything from advertising costs to where they ate lunch.
(It seems Rudy McCollum relies on Papa John’s to fuel his campaigning, while Reva Trammell prefers Lee’s Chicken.)
Compared with congressional or senatorial races, it doesn’t cost much to run for Council. But most candidates managed to raise sums hovering around $20,000.
Incumbent Bill Pantele raised $36,188 (including money left over from his 2000 campaign), the most of all the victorious candidates. His opponent for the 2nd District seat, Virginia Commonwealth University student Will Jacobs, raised almost nothing; he listed his campaign fund balance as $2 in October, $0 thereafter.
Gwen Hedgepeth, the incumbent councilwoman for the 9th District, raised the least: $14,848. On the spending side, Manoli Loupassi’s campaign cost the least of the victors: $4,345. He was the only one running for the 1st District seat.
Joe Brooks, incumbent in the 4th District, didn’t start raising money until Oct. 15. Although the race was uncontested on paper, Pete Grimm mounted a vigorous campaign as a write-in candidate. In the end, he gave Brooks a run for his money.
Two candidates went all-out on Election Day, hiring droves of people to campaign near the polls. Reva Trammell, who lost the hotly contested race for the 8th District, paid 34 poll workers $100 apiece, while Delores McQuinn hired 38 people for $25 to $100.
Most of the candidates’ money came from dozens of small donations by political action committees, friends and businesses in their district. But some prominent Richmond developers contributed significant sums. Bedros Bandazian gave $4,500 to Pantele’s campaign and $250 to Johnson. Jerry Cable, owner of the Tobacco Company restaurant, gave $1,500 each to Sa’ad El-Amin and McQuinn, as well as $1,000 plus $1,845 worth of food and drink to Rudy McCollum.
Some donations came from the candidates themselves. Delores B. Jones, Bill Johnson’s opponent for the 3rd District seat, financed her campaign with a $15,000. Jones, the pastor of Love Outreach Ministry and executive director of Love Outreach Day Care, was defeated.
Financially, the real winners were the local companies paid to print and design the ubiquitous signs and flyers. Design firm Media Directions made $26,210 just from supplying two councilmen’s campaign materials.
— M.S.S.
