The Supervisors and their major donors

Using the data recently compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project for Albemarle County's recent election, it is possible to evaluate the major donors and the total funds raised by each candidate this election cycle.

The major donors* to Albemarle County's 2007 Board of Supervisors candidates were as follows:

$38,000 - Monticello Business Alliance (See also: MBA's donors)
$10,000 - Zobrist Law Group (Duane Zobrist)
$7,800 - Ben Brewster
$7,500 - Blue Ridge Homebuilders Association
$7,500 - Virginia Association of Realtors
$7,000 - Democratic Road Back PAC
$5,250 - Barbara Fried
$5,000 - Virginia Association of Realtors - Charlottesville Area
$4,500 - Va Dem - Albemarle Charlottesville
$3,000 - Leo Mallek
$3,000 - Marie Woodward
$2,500 - Phil Wendel
$2,500 - Boyd Tinsley
$2,500 - Bill Edgerton

* Major donors were those who gave a total of $2,500 or more to one or more candidates

This table shows where each of the major donors made their contributions (Click to view complete table).

The fundraising totals for all the candidates as of their December 6th financial report are as follows:

$61,239 - David Wyant (R-White Hall)
$60,541 - Ken Boyd* (R-Rivanna)
$47,183 - Marcia Joseph (D-Rivanna)
$41,555 - Ann Mallek* (D-White Hall)
$39,425 - Lindsay Dorrier* (D-Scottsville)   
$6,350  - Dennis King (I-Scottsville)
$575 - Kevin Fletcher (I-Scottsville)

* Candidate won seat

Brian Wheeler

Comments

[Dave Phillips]

Just in the interest of full or at least correct disclosure, the REALTOR donation were all from the same source even if they were reported slightly different. That puts us in 2nd place (although we spread our money out more than others. CAAR is very proud of the races "our" candidates ran - positive, issue based and classy - and we are happy to provide financial support to those citizens willing to run for office. I think we were involved in 10 races - 5 democrats, 4 Republicans and 1 - independent and went 8 and 2.

Frankly, I think you made too much todo about about nothing with all the tracking of major donars. It takes a ton of money to run for office these days and the major donars do not even count for half of the totals. If you think $5000 will buy you a candidate, you are kidding yourself. I know CT does not offer editorial content when it publishes the "major donars", but it seems like a transparent attempt to say "look whose buying the election." That is very naive.

[cvilletom]

Dave - Thanks for your comment. This post reports the contributions as they are recorded in the independent Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) database, and as you said, without editorial comment. Their work is based on the candidates' campaign finance reports. Charlottesville Tomorrow supports this online reporting of local campaign contributions to add to the transparency in local elections. This is the same philosophy used by VPAP to report on donations in state politics. Their work has broad support by the public and media. Making a statement about who is "buying the election," to use your term, is not our business. On this blog, we have just reported the facts of where the money is coming from for all the candidates. Everyone candidate is treated the same way.

Had 14 individuals been the campaign's major donors, we would report that too. In your comment you point out that you view the two Va Assoc of Realtors contributions as coming from a single source. While I did not show the analysis by industry, that is easy to do using the VPAP database. If you look at the Real Estate/Construction industry, and include the Monticello Business Alliance as part of that group, your industry led the way in campaign donations - about 31% of ALL contributions to ALL seven candidates. Receiving the most from the Real Estate/Construction industry were Mr. Boyd (49% of funds raised), Mr. Wyant (45% of funds raised), and Mr. Dorrier (45% of funds raised). The other four candidates had the following contributions recorded as coming from that industry: Joseph $3,500 or 7.4%; Mallek $500 or 1.2%; King $250; and Fletcher $0. That is another way to look at the data.

Brian Wheeler
Executive Director, Charlottesville Tomorrow

[Let's be honest..........]

I feel compelled to write a comment after reading Dave Phillips' input here. It is not honest to suggest that when the Monticello Business Alliance provides $38K and the other development/real estate interests kick in 10's of thousands of dollars more that the contributions were not skewed!!! Thank goodness for Charlottesville Tomorrow providing this information. Maybe Dave hasn't listened to some of the realtors in his own group who are having to get part time jobs because nothing's moving and the market is glutted. Many of the realtors I know are disgusted that CAARS continutes endorsing Republican/development interests. Talk about naive!!!