Think elections don’t matter? Tell that to the eight candidates running for the Manhattan city commission, who all told spent the last three months, raking in nearly $39,000 from donors to get them elected.
Candidates were required to submit campaign finance reports Oct. 25, ahead of the general election. The totals account for all contributions collected between late July and late October.
Former city commissioner Rich Jankovich led all candidates in fundraising, garnering over $10,000 in contributions. Incumbent Usha Reddi raised over $7,200 and Wynn Butler raised $6,200. The rest of the field saw John Matta raised over $5,700, Monica Macfarlane at just under $4,600 and Aaron Estabrook at nearly $2,800. Kaleb James and Marcus Kidd both raised less than $1,000.
In terms of expenses, Reddi, who had over $13,000 including contributions from the previous reporting period, spent nearly $12,000 of those funds on her campaign. Estabrook spent almost $8,700 of his $9,183 total cash available. Most of the candidates had less than $2,000 in contributions left in their accounts as of Oct. 25. The exception was Jankovich, who spent nearly $2,700 this quarter but still had over $14,000 cash on hand when receipts were turned in.
Joe McGraw, who has withdrawn from the race, raised no money during the quarter.
All told, candidates spent nearly $43,000 on the election.
You can view each of the candidates’ campaign finance reports below.
