GREENFIELD — The GOP primaries for sheriff, county commissioner and judge have seen some of the biggest spending by candidates, according to recently filed campaign finance reports.
April 20 was the deadline for the candidate committees to file financial reports detailing how much money the campaigns received and spent from the start of 2018 until mid-April. The filing is also a way for the public to see who is backing which candidates and what the campaigns are spending their money on. Contributions can come from a variety of sources, including donations from individuals, corporations or even Political Action Committees.
The Republican race for sheriff, which has four candidates, saw some of the biggest spending with Wayne Addison leading every other campaign by spending nearly $28,000 since the beginning of the year. His campaign also brought in the most money, reporting a total of close to $32,000 in contributions.
Addison said its been humbling to see the amount of support he’s received during this election cycle.
“I’ve been very fortunate. There’s a lot of people who’ve been willing to support me,” he said. “I hope it ultimately turns into a lot of votes.”
Addison said he put his background in holding auctions to good use this year. A good deal of his fundraising came from people giving him items to auction off. The proceeds from that auction in turn went to his campaign.
One of Addison’s opponents, Brad Burkhart, spent $18,500 during the reporting period while bringing in $16,000. The other two candidates, Donnie Munden and Donnie Smith spent $7,000 and $3,000, respectively. No Democrats have filed for the position. All told, more than $60,000 has been spent in the sheriff’s race alone.
Hancock County GOP Chair Janice Silvey said that kind of spending isn’t surprising given the weight of the sheriff’s race.
Overall the amount of fundraising being done this primary season is the most Silvey said she’s seen in a while.
The other big spender of the the filing period was Marc Huber, running to retain his seat on the Hancock County Board of Commissioners. Huber’s campaign reported spending $20,000 on its filing report while bringing in more than $19,000 in donations and contributions. Huber easily outdistanced his opponent Kent Fisk, who spent $7,000 while bringing in $5,700, according to his report.
Huber went into this race knowing he would need a lot of support to try and overcome his opponent’s name recognition in Hancock County.
“I’m not sure if there’s a secret to it,” Huber said. “We’ve worked hard at it. I knew going into this I’d have to talk to a lot of people and get the word out.”
There was also quite a bit of cash spent in the race for judge with incumbent Scott Sirk leading the charge with $10,000 in expenditures since the start of 2018. Sirk’s two opponents have spent a lot in the last four months as well, with D.J. Davis’s campaign shelling out nearly $7,500 and Scott Wooldridge reporting $6,600.
Across the board, it wasn’t unusual to see candidates funding their campaigns with their own money and loans. Burkhart’s $16,000 fundraising total included a $6,000 donation from Burkhart Farms, LLC. Wooldridge has loaned his campaign $12,000, according to his filing report. Miriam Rolles, one of three running for county clerk also leaned on her business, loaning more than $1,500 from her company, The Abstract Shack, to her campaign.
What the campaigns spend their money on varies widely, but most of it goes to yard signs, newspaper advertisements, mailers and t-shirts. Some candidates are also experimenting with advertisements on social media, including Facebook.
While creating a Facebook page for a campaign isn’t unusual, more candidates are paying Facebook to boost their posts and make sure more people are seeing their ads. Rolles reported paying Facebook $300 over the course of her campaign. Grey Chandler, running for Hancock County Prosecutor, has spent $400 on Facebook and Wooldrige’s campaign reported $200 for Facebook ads.
Addison said he’s been paying Facebook and recently started an ad campaign on YouTube in an attempt to get his message out to more people.
“I’ve been trying to do everything, trying to cover all of the bases,” he said. “I’ve received a lot of good responses from people.”
And some candidates prefer to advertise the old-fashioned way with large billboards. Davis’ campaign showed he paid nearly $3,000 to Fairway Outdoor Advertising for billboard signage.
