Friday, February 29, 2008

More big fundraising returns

It looks like Claudia Walters won the latest round of fundraising, gathering over $24,000 is the last cycle. Scott Smith gathered another $18,000 in donations, and Rex Griswold gathered over $17,000. Here is the Republic's take as well. She also has the most on hand, so I predict that she will make a major push over the last few days. The real question is: can she push past the overarching sentiment that she is to blame for many oft he problems. Whether this fact is true or not, she has been taking the majority of the hits on this issue, while most people have given Griswold a pass.

ETA: I just found out that $10,000 of Walter's money came from a personal loan. Why didn't they make a bigger deal out of it? The loan issue was beaten to death when Smith and Griswold donated to their campaigns.

Seeing how much Yarbrough is being outspent by Kavanaugh, I stand by my previous statement about how Yarbrough should be banging on taxes now more than ever. However, I predict that his goose is fairly cooked. Based on the money, support and the momentum, here is how I predict these races are going to play out:

District 1 - Richins will win, but it might be closer than people thought
District 2 - Alex Finter will win handily
District 3 - Dennis Kavanaugh will win
District 5 - Phil Austin will win

This leaves only the Mayor's race. I am going to have to wait and see how these last few days play out. There might be a chance for someone to win outright depending on how turnout goes. However, each has their own base so a runoff might be inthe cards. The most interesting thing is that I am predicting that District 5 will be won outright, so that would mean that the Mayor's race is the only thing that has potential for a run off.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Both newspapers are such a joke. How do you hammer Smith and Griswold, then totally disregard Walters' loan by not even mentioning it. Even worse, they gave her credit by claiming she raised it! Doesn't money raised show momentum, not how much a candidate holds onto to pay themselves back? If Walters' loses like many are predicting, what does she do with the $30,000 left over? Also, why no mention of who the donors are that are cutting big checks now that the limits are off? The poster in the Trib said Griswold got a $2,500 check from an out of state donor. It just seems the papers have gotten so lazy lately!