Chandler candidates for office ranked in various places in the Legislative District 13 races in fundraising, as of the Sept. 30 third-quarter reporting deadline.
With two candidates from both the Democratic and Republican July 21 primaries to the general election on Nov. 3, these financial filings provide, in some races, an updated picture of how each candidate intends to win over the Legislative District 13 electorate.
Arizona voters select two representatives from each of its 30 districts in even-numbered years for two-year terms in the legislature. The top two vote-getters in the July 21 primary in each party advanced to the Nov. 3 general election, when two representatives are chosen by voters, regardless of party.
There were three Republicans in the House LD13 race this year.
In many cases — such as with the Democratic Party in LD13 this year — there are two or fewer candidates on the ballot for the party, so both automatically advance to the general election.
There are only one Democrat and one Republican running for the lone LD13 Senate seat this year, so while July 21 primary votes will be somewhat informative of turnout by party, it’s not necessarily an indicator of head-to-head partisan general elections.
District 13 includes most of Chandler, Sun Lakes and other small unincorporated patches of southeastern Maricopa County small western parts of the Town of Gilbert; all four candidates this year live in Chandler.
In the LD13 House race, Kevin Hartke, the two-term Chandler mayor, had the most cash on hand among the five LD13 House candidates as of June 30, with almost $120,000. He went on to take in almost $98,000 in new donations in the third quarter — with only about $14,000 of it from political action committees and nearly $84,000 in individual contributions.
Hartke also spent only about $20,000 in the third quarter.
Hartke’s biggest PAC donation this quarter was from Freedom Club PAC, which is the political spending arm of the conservative organization called the Arizona Free Enterprise Club.
Hartke’s largest individual donations were $5,500 and were from Paradise Valley. That was from both Ken and Randy Kendrick, the Arizona Diamondbacks principal owner and his wife, a Goldwater Institute board member, along with investment firm leader Harry Papp; David Alexander, the president of Caljet, and Marilyn Alexander and Slade Stewart of Scottsdale.
Two people gave Hartke’s campaign $5,000 and two others donated $4,000.
Notable recent lesser contributors include sports magnate Jerry Colangelo and Peoria mayor and businessman Jason Beck.
The top-fundraising Democrat in the LD13 House race has been Racquel “Rockee” Armstrong. Armstrong’s campaign got $82,000 in donations in the second quarter in the run-up to the July 21 uncontested Democratic primary, when she and Jacob Weinberg automatically advanced to the Nov. 3 ballot.
Armstrong had more than $114,000 cash on hand as of June 30 and built on that, taking in $67,000 in individual contributions and $25,600 PAC donations in the third quarter. She spent or donated $205,000 that quarter and finished with $49,000 on Sept. 30.
Most of Armstrong’s hundreds of listed contributors are small-dollar, with one $5,500 donation from a Los Angeles doctor and only four total donations of $1,000 or more. Hundreds of her donations are from outside Arizona.
Armstrong’s PAC contributions during the third quarter include $11,000 from the national PAC For America’s Future, $5,500 from the woman candidate-focused Emily’s List.
The second-most fundraising among the three GOP hopefuls in the race this past quarter was done by Janet Weninger. She followed $38,000 in donations in the second quarter with $55,000 more in the third quarter, spending only about $5,200 to finish with a balance of about $59,000 on Sept. 30.
Weninger has secured donations from some of the same individual and PAC sources as Hartke, such as the Kendricks, Stewart and the Free Enterprise Club.
Weninger secured more than $10,000 in PAC contributions in the second quarter and $17,000 more in the third quarter. Realtors of Arizona gave her $2,500.
Debra Schnike of Chandler, the third GOP primary candidate who was eliminated in the July 21 primary, had a few transactions in the waning weeks of her campaign.
Schnike started the third quarter with about $30,000 with less than $900 cash on hand on July 1, took in almost $1,000, spent more than $3,000 and took out a new loan. Her outstanding loan balance, as of her Oct. 13 filing, was about $18,000.
Jacob Weinberg of Chandler is the only other Democrat in the LD13 House race this year, advancing automatically to the general election alongside Armstrong.
Weinberg, with more than $42,000 on hand after a productive second quarter, took in $65,000 in new individual contributions and $16,500 in PAC contributions.
Weinberg’s contributions mirror Armstrong’s somewhat, including a single $5,500 donation from a Los Angeles doctor and hundreds of small-dollar donations, many from outside Arizona, plus another $11,000 from the national PAC For America’s Future.
Weinberg also received $5,000 from Marcia Grand of San Francisco and $4,000 from the Climate Cabinet PAC.
The two LD13 Senate candidates, each running unopposed for their party’s nominations, have raised funds in somewhat different ways.
Kristie O’Brien’s $58,000 second-quarter haul only brought her cash on hand, after modest expenses, to $79,000, while Republican candidate and current LD13 Rep. Julie Willoughby had about $194,000 in the bank as of the primaries on June 30.
O’Brien took in $73,000 in individual contributions and $33,500 from PACs in the third quarter. She also contributed $100,000 during the quarter to “contributions to committees/businesses” and only listed $38,000 as operating expenses, finishing the quarter with $73,000 on Oct. 1.
O’Brien’s top individual and PAC donors were nearly the same as Weinberg’s and Armstrong’s, while Caleb Reese of Paradise Valley donated $5,500 as well.
Willoughby’s haul of $65,000 in the second quarter gave her a sizable cash advantage after the primary, when she had $201,000 cash on hand, and she maintained that advantage. She took in $105,000 in individual contributions and $67,000 from PACs in the third quarter.
Willoughby bought plenty of advertising as part of her $269,000 in operating expenses in the quarter, passing along only $1,000 in “contributions to committees/businesses.”
Willoughby received donations from dozens of PACs, including the Free Enterprise Club, Realtors of Arizona and the Manufactured Housing Industry of Arizona independent expenditure campaign fund.
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