Mayoral candidate Paul Wiehl raised about $3,000 more in monetary campaign contributions than Ed Baum during the most recent reporting period, while law director candidate Pat Lang garnered twice the contributions of incumbent Garry Hunter, according to campaign finance reports filed yesterday.
Wiehl reported a campaign income of $14,714, including contributions and a $1,000 loan, from June through mid-October. Baum reported $15,585, which included contributions and $5,000 in loans.
The contributions from this most recent period bring Wiehl's total campaign income to $17,096 and Baum's to $15,585.
After expenses ' $11,352 for Wiehl and $10,547 for Baum ' the candidates were left with nearly the same amount available at $5,744 and $5,038 respectively.
Wiehl's contributors included a variety of local Democratic officials, including the city auditor, the county sheriff, three Athens City Council members and the council president and an at-large council candidate. The two candidates received a number of contributions from former and current Ohio University faculty and staff.
Sergey Kahn, an independent candidate for mayor, did not submit a financial report by the 4 p.m. filing deadline yesterday.
Both Wiehl and Baum have experience running with a designated party and as an independent, and both said that a party affiliation makes financing and campaigning easier because the organization can offer extra support.
Running as an independent can be more challenging because an independent has no preset structure for disseminating information and you have to make the system up yourself
said Wiehl, who is running as a Democrat.
Baum, an independent who campaigns on the primary goal of uniting Athens regardless of party lines, said he thinks party support is important unless you have a good reason to run as an independent which I have.
Still, funding is a campaign necessity, he said.
I think it's important that people understand that you cannot do good communication without money Baum said.
Lang outpaces Hunter
Law director candidate Pat Lang reported $5,658 in contributions since June, more than twice the $2,775 Republican incumbent Garry Hunter received, according to the report.
This period's reported contributions bring Lang's total for the campaign to $7,321 and Hunter's to $2,775.
Expenditures tell the opposite tale. Hunter reported $14,179 in expenditures, almost double the $7,248 Lang spent on campaign costs.
Hunter overspent his contributions by $11,404, while Lang has a $72 positive balance.
Hunter's committee also accrued $15,500 from five loans, incurred from early May to the middle of this month.
Hunter said he contributed the loans to his campaign because he does not like asking other people for money and hosted no fundraisers.
Candidates must be willing to put their own money
time and effort into their campaigns
he said.
If Hunter's personal contributions were not reported as loans in the report, he could not be reimbursed if more contributions come in before the election, he said.
Lang's supporters included the Ohio Democratic Party, a local judge, an Athens City Council member and an Athens County auditor candidate.
Hunter received no funding from the Ohio Republican Party.
Lang said he tried to distribute expenditures evenly among mail, leaflets, radio and television advertisement.
Funding is important in modern politics
said Lang, who spent $4,486 in cable advertisements and $1,481 in radio advertisements.
The more resources candidates have, the more they can reach out to the voters, Lang said.
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Jessie Balmert
