Bloomington mayoral candidate Thomson with big early lead in money raised, spent

Correction: This post has been updated to correct the spelling of Henke's name.

Mayoral candidate Kerry Thomson so far has outraised and outspent her two primary opponents, Susan Sandberg and Don Griffin Jr., by a margin of nearly 2:1 — combined.

According to campaign finance reports, Thomson last year raised nearly $93,000, compared to about $26,000 for Griffin and $25,000 for Sandberg.

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Thompson, through Dec. 31 of last year, also had spent more than $18,000 on her campaign, compared to just under $9,000 for Sandberg and $328.03 for Griffin. Thomson had nearly $75,000 remaining, compared to about $26,000 for Griffin and roughly $16,000 for Sandberg.

Candidates recently filed pre-election campaign finance reports, which provide voters with information about how much money candidates have raised, where that money comes from and how they're spending it. An IU professor has said research generally points to a relationship between spending money and gaining votes, though the details of that relationship are not quite clear.

The most recent filings covered the entire last year. Candidates have to file a campaign finance pre-primary report by April 14. That report will cover money raised and spent from Jan. 1 to April 7. The primary election will be on May 2.

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Thomson, in the most recent report, had 28 donations of at least $1,000, while Griffin had eight and Sandberg had five. Thomson had two donations of $10,000, which by themselves nearly equaled Griffin and Sandberg’s total haul last year.

The candidates’ donors of at least $1,000 are below. Donors have a Bloomington address unless noted otherwise.

Sandberg

• Sheryl and Thomas Schwandt, $2,000
• Jon Lawrence, Janice Sorby, $5,000
• Betty Nagle, $1,000
• Chris Sturbaum, $1,000
• Paul Ash, $1,000

Griffin

• Pavilion Properties Management LLC, $1,000
• Janice Wiggins, $1,000
• Fred Schultz, $1,000
• Charlie Nelms, $1,000
• Daniel Gupta, $1,000
• Marshella Griffin, Los Angeles, $10,025
• Mary Friedman, $1,000
• Morris Erickson, $2,500

Thomson

• Blackwell Contractors, $2,500
• Ellen Wingard, Chilmark, Massachusetts, $6,000
• Susan West, $1,000
• Barney Thomson, Vienna, Virginia, $1,000
• Emily Styron, Zionsville, Indiana, $2,500
• Eric Stolberg, $1,000
• Aaron Stolberg, $1,000
• Winston Shindell, $1,000
• Babak Seradjeh, $1,049
• Meredith Rogers, $10,000
• John Richardson, $1,049
• Jeff Richardson, $1,000
• Lydia Murray, Chicago, $1,000
• Patrick Murphy, $1,049
• Michael May, $10,000
• Tony Moravec, Columbus, Indiana, $1,000
• George Mankowski, $1,000
• Elliot Lewis $2,500
• Jeffrey Jones, $2,500
• Tim Henke, $1,500
• Tim Hanson, $1,500
• Diane Girvin, Camden, Connecticut, $1,000
• J. Thomas Forbes, $1,000
• Sheri Fella, $3,981
• Tim Ellis, $3,000
• Elizabeth Ellis, $2,000
• Sarah Booher, $1,069
• Suzanne Aquila, $1,000

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.