A look back at the 6th Senate: the others

VPAP has an interesting analysis of where the money was spent by the two candidates vying for the 6th Senate. A couple of notes, from a review of the reports on SBE:

• Wayne Coleman loaned his campaign $150,000, none of which was repaid. His cash on hand as of 2/3/14 was $509.52.
• Lynwood Lewis ended up with $28,605.64 in the bank on 1/7/14.

In case it isn’t obvious: note that the cutoff dates are not the same, making comparisons a little difficult. Lewis’ last report cuts off nearly a month before that of Coleman’s – and before the recount.

But I was more interested in the filings for the candidates who did not win their party’s nominations. It makes no sense to me that we had no way to know who was financing the spending until well after the contest was decided. The legislature needs to adjust the filing requirements for situations like this.

Both parties had two additional candidates in the nominating contest. For Republicans, it was John Coggeshall, who filed no reports that I can find, and Richard Ottinger. The latter’s report (7/1/13 – 12/31/13) shows he raised $38,800, including $10,000 from the law firm of Vandeventer Black, and loaned his campaign a net of $12,673.71. As of 12/31/13, Ottinger had $41.45 on hand.

For the Democrats, it was Andria McClellan and Paula Miller. Miller, a former delegate, already had a campaign account and filed her reports on the schedule for last November’s election, which meant I had to review five reports to figure out what she had raised and spent in a comparable period. If my math is correct, from 7/1-12/31/13, Miller raised $11,860.89, including a few pennies in interest on her account. As of 12/31, Miller had $7,559.79 on hand.

McClellan’s report for the same period shows $84,735 in receipts, including $25,015 from the candidate and $10,000 each from Paul Hirschbiel and James Mcclellan, plus $25,000 in loans from the candidate. As of 12/31, McClellan had $22,849.93 on hand.

I’ll be watching these candidates as the next reports come out. At least with no election, they’ll all be on the same reporting cycle.