Local candidates haven't been focusing too much on raising money during this year's campaigns.
Athens City Council candidate Pat McGee raised less than $500 for his campaign since he announced his candidacy this summer, which he paid for out of pocket.
McGee said he made it a point to conduct his campaign “on the cheap.” He added that he liked to think his reputation in town, specifically his work as managing attorney for the Center for Student Legal Services, spoke for itself.
“I’ve donated a lot to political causes myself, and I understand that it can be a hardship on people to have to ask for donations all the time,” he said.
Although few candidates ran on such a sparse budget as McGee, many candidates in this year’s local elections said they didn’t focus too much on raising money.
McGee said his primary expenses during his campaign were for yard signs and making copies of campaign leaflets.
He said he has done much of his campaign using methods that don’t require money, like fostering a strong social media presence and going door to door.
Republican city council candidate Aaron Dauterman, a senior at Ohio University studying communication, also said door-to-door campaigning was his primary method of campaigning, but he spent money on campaign literature and a banner as well.
He said his largest expense was about $273 spent on 100 yard signs.
“That really wasn’t one of our biggest things to focus on,” he said. “The biggest issue to focus on was getting our message out, going door to door talking to voters … really talking to them about the issues.”
Dauterman said he received about $10 to $15 each week from family and friends in support of his campaign.
In spite of that, he said finances were still a bit tight throughout his campaign.
According to his finance report filed Thursday, he raised $1,270 since the start of his campaign and spent more than $890.
“I haven’t been able to raise as much as I was expecting to, but we still managed to maintain a budget,” he said.
Some of the contributions to his campaign came from notable Republicans in the county.
Pete Couladis, chair of the Athens County Republican Party, donated $100 to Dauterman's campaign. Yolan Dennis, who ran against state Rep. Debbie Phillips in last year's elections, donated $200.
Mayoral candidate Steve Patterson, who currently serves as an at-large city councilman, stopped collecting money when his opponent, Andrew Looker, a senior studying communication, dropped out of the race.
“That significantly changed things because once that happened I wasn’t going to ask people for campaign contributions for anything like yard signs,” he said.
He said he did retain his campaign account for a few weeks in case another candidate decided to file as a write-in.
Prior to that, Patterson said he was able to rely on the supporter base he has accumulated from past city council races in order to raise money.
“I had people coming to me and asking if there’s any way in which they can help,” he said. “That’s probably the most frequent way in which I raised campaign funds.”
But when the Aug. 24 deadline for write-in candidates came and went without a contender stepping forward, Patterson said he no longer felt any need to look for funding.
“At that point I had enough campaign literature from my primary,” he said.
Jennifer Cochran, an incumbent Democrat running for an at-large city council seat, didn’t raise any money for her campaign this year. Cochran has served on council since 2013.
“My first try running for public office, I simply asked a few folks that I knew for donations to my campaign,” Cochran said. “I have not added to that fund.”
Athens City Council at-large candidate, Pete Kotses, started raising money for his campaign back in May. Most of the money raised came from personal donations and out-of-pocket contributions.
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“It was mostly just local people that were happy to see me run, and that was just how they wanted to help out,” Kotses said.
Joan Kraynanski, city council at-large candidate, started fundraising in February and attributed most of her campaign's donations to friends and family.
“I had many friends and acquaintances locally that I would talk to and they’d say, ‘I want to give you a check,’ " Kraynanski said. "I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of financial support I received for the campaign.”
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