New car, caviar, four star daydream, think I'll buy me a football team. (The Next Mayor)

Money, it's a gas.

Yes folks, we get one last look at the campaign finance situation from the 2007 primary. The Inquirer coverage focuses on the crazy amount that Tom Knox spent and breaks down his, Nutter's and Al Taubenberger's per-vote spending. In case you're wondering, Taubenberger spent "spent less than a quarter" for "each and every one of his 17,449 votes."

Inquirer also has a story connecting past donors to Mayor Street to the "One Step Closer" PAC that ran the anti-Nutter ads that were seen (it seems) by literally tens of people. Are we surprised by this?

The Daily News coverage takes a different angle and makes a comparison of the numbers of donors who gave to each campaign. And they'd be able to do it too, if all of the campaigns had filed their electronic records on time for their deadline (DN shakes fist at Fattah and Brady campaigns - but I did find Fattah's filing on the City Controller's website). Anyway, the interesting takeaway from this story is that:

Half of Nutter's donors gave $250 or less, according to his reports. But he had more than 4,300 individual and organization donors - a broader base of support than any of his rivals, twice as many as Mayor Street had for the 1999 primary and as many as donated to Ed Rendell in his mayoral campaigns in 1991 and 1995 combined.

Nutter raised $4.6 million, according to his reports.

Is there any doubt any more about why he won? Obviously he helped to pass campaign finance restrictions that played right to his strength of being able to spend 5-6 hours per day on the phone asking people for money. Duh. Does this mean that Nutter takes the mantle of "state's most prolific fundraiser" from Rendell? What would Rendell have been able to raise with the same limits?

Anyway, the final point about all of this is that if you take away Tom Knox's own personal contributions of $10 million ($10,593,220 to be exact), the five Democratic candidates raised a total of about $14.5 million, slightly below than the $14.7 million raised by the five Democratic candidates in 1999.

If you consider that television ad costs are 15 to 20 percent higher than in 1999 (according to Nutter media consultant Neil Oxman) AND the fact that Taubenberger and Nutter are not expected to come anywhere close to what John Street and Sam Katz raised in the summer and fall of 1999, then we could have the least tv-ad intensive, least expensive mayoral campaign in a long time. Barring any surprises...

FYI: From the City Controller's website, the Cycle 3 (May 1 to June 4) campaign finance reports for Michael Nutter, Tom Knox, Chaka Fattah, Dwight Evans and Al Taubenberger.

~~For you campaign finance report junkies out there, mark September 25th on your calendar since, according to the Records Department, that's the deadline for the next filing.~~

Folks: That deadline is for statewide candidates and those who give to them only. Sorry about the error -- Wendy

Comments (16)

Anonymous:

Based on your logic, Tom Knox should've won because he got almost $11 million without having to lift a finger to dial a number.

It's never that simple ;-)

Posted by Anonymous | June 15, 2007 12:35 PM

P.S. Evans also should've come in second.

Esquisite:

I would like to see Eryn Santamoor get more props for Nutter's prolific fundraising.

Who's Eryn Santamoor? Well, she's Nutter's 27-year-old Finance Director. She's been with Nutter and raising money for him since last July. Just an fyi.

Posted by Esquisite | June 15, 2007 8:58 PM

Dan from Roxborough:

Nutter needs some real talent around him! He should confer with Jonathan Saidel. Saidel has mastered all the issues regarding city government and can be a real score for Nutter. Saidel is head and shoulders smarter than anyone Nutter has around him. Rememeber the city union contracts are coming. He will need a lot of experienced, seasoned talent advising him.

As for the change in Department heads, we need to get Nutter a size 22 boot to kick Sovible out of L & I. He has wrecked the department and is trying to save his head, even though he is in the City's DROP Program. L & I needs a seasoned, experienced rank and file L & I person to clean and organize this department...it is a real mess. And they can begin by saving $65,000 by axing the latest hack job they weasled in before the election: Assistant to the Commissioner. A local 98 patriot Tom McDade was given this position which Dougherty has been fighting for to get a foot in L & I. This is what is wrong with government. Dissolve this wasted position and create two inspector or clerk positions!!

See it is simple if you try - the taxpayers deserve and demand better, and we have demonstrated that with this past election.

Posted by Dan from Roxborough | June 17, 2007 11:15 PM

Saidel hasn't done anything except make a fool out of himself. He was one of the biggest losers of the election, dropping out for the illiterate Bob Brady who came in a lackluster 3rd place.

Posted by Anonymous | June 18, 2007 9:38 PM

Nice to see Johnny Dougherty's idiots are still posting...

The only illiterates are those working for the Local 98 Hate Squad

Posted by Dan from Roxborough | June 20, 2007 11:23 PM

Danielle :

So-so. Something was not impressed.

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