Campaign Finance Reports

It's deadline day for campaign finance reports and a rare opportunity for Pure Objective Journalism: How much raised, how much spent, who gave.

Local Legislative Races

Senate 39, left open by Republican Sandy Greiner's retirement, is the only legislative race in the state with primaries in both parties. Half the district is in Johnson County, and the other half is Keokuk County and most of Washington County.

Democrat Kevin Kinney started from zero and raised a formidable $20,165 by May 15, to top all local candidates in contested races. He spent $9082 leaving $11,083. Primary rival Rich Gilmore started the year with $2,524.07 and raised just $350. Gilmore spent $1,133.86 leaving $1,740.21.

On the Republican side Michael Moore narrowly leads the fundraising. He started the year with $3,785.77 and raised another $5,270.00 for $9,055.77 in all. Moore spent $3,379.18 leaving $5,676.59. Bob Anderson is close behind, starting the period with $3,375.00 and raising another $5,089.00 for a total of $8,464.00. He spent $7,411.58 leaving $1,052.42 on hand.

Without quantifying it all, looks like a friends and neighbors contest, with Moore's donations mainly from Washington County and Anderson drawing support from Johnson.

This leaves the other Johnson County candidate, Royce Phillips, a bit of the odd man out.  Phillips had $516.67 in January and raised another $1,935.00 - more than half that, $1000, from one donor, Marvel Titone of Oxford. Phillips spent $1,571.81 leaving $879.86. But there's also $2,817.38 in outstanding bills and $2,119.73 in in-kind donations.

In the House 73 Democratic primary, late starter Dennis Boedeker kicked in $1100 personally and spent $570.70 leaving $529.30. Four time candidate David Johnson, who has been running almost non-stop since the map came out three years ago, started the year with $4,362. He raised $1,942.55 and spent $3,099.59, leaving $3,204.97.

The winner of the Democratic primary faces freshman Republican Bobby Kaufmann, who hadn't filed as of noon but had $20,001 in the bank in January.

County Attorney

Incumbent Janet Lyness began the year with $1,197.23 and raised $11,890.18, for a total of $13,087.41. She spent $3,647.13 leaving $9,440.28 (but $4,089.45 goes to bills yet to be paid). Donors include a who's who of elected officials and attorneys.

Challenger John Zimmerman raised $4703 including $505 of his own money. $3,674.68 of that is spent, leaving $1,032.55. There's also another $3,648.73 in in-kind donations, $2180 of that from the candidate himself for Facebook ads.

The only elected official who shows up on Zimmerman's list is Jim Throgmorton, who also gave to Lyness. House 73 candidate David Johnson kicked in $50.

Supervisor

It's harder to ferret out who's backing who in a vote for two race with three serious candidates and a Survivor Island, who are you voting AGAINST dynamic. There's a lot of "polite" contributions from elected official types at small dollar events early in the year. Sometimes that even included opponents. I couldn't find anyone who gave to all three, but I won't be surprised if later on I do.

Incumbent Janelle Rettig started the year with $5,550.34 in the bank and raised another $8,101.05 for a total of $13,651.39. Team Teal spent $7,875.56 leaving $5,775.83 on hand.

Mike Carberry started the year with $1,788.89 on hand, raised $7,382 from January to May, and spent $8,057.33, leaving $1,113.56 on hand.

Lisa Green-Douglass started the year with $105 and raised $3,435.00 plus a $350 loan. She spent $2979 leaving $910 on hand.

I said there were three SERIOUS candidates in the Democratic primary. The fourth, Diane Dunlap, raised just 75 bucks in two contributions and spent $290 on her (non-union) yard signs, leaving her $215 in the hole. Technically, she didn't even need to file, and it might have been less embarrassing if she hadn't.

The top two will face John Etheredge, assured of re-nomination as the only Republican on the ballot. (The party could nominate a second candidate at a convention, and independents can file in August.) He has $889 in the bank to start the fall campaign.