AURORA | Aurora City Council members Brad Pierce, Barb Cleland and Marsha Berzins have raised about $20,000 more than any other council candidate so far in the 2013 council race.
The first campaign finance report was due Aug. 7, 90 days before the election.
Cleland received about $27,000 in contributions, bringing her total receipts to $29,000 including leftover campaign money she had from her previous race. Pierce received about $32,000 including monetary contributions and leftover cash.
Pierce and Cleland have both been on council for years and are both vying to keep their at-large seats in a field of four other candidates.
Berzins, running to keep her Ward III seat, raised about $31,000, bringing her total receipts to about $39,000.
The other candidates for council have raised about $10,000 or less.
Maya Wheeler, another at-large candidate, raised $10,000.
Sally Mounier, a council-appointee who is running to keep her Ward I seat against Eric Busch, raised $9,000.
Check next week’s Aurora Sentinel for a longer update on campaign fundraising.
Are all those votes for incentives are paying of or do incumbents just know people?
The amount of money raised by incumbents seems entirely reasonable.
The President of the United States compensation package is just over $400,000 and he raised over 1 billion dollars for his last campaign, about 2000 times his compensation package. Aurora Council Members annual compensation package is around $36,000 so it seems to this casual observer that 3.6 million dollars for their campaign would be reasonable; the money incumbents have raised to date seems to be just a good start.
I don’t know why anyone would begrudge incumbants the paltry war chest they have accumulated thus far or why anyone would suggest that contributors have bought votes; as the mayor says, money does not buy votes it only buys access.