Intense campaign fundraising by local candidates over the past year has narrowed the financial gap between candidates vying for legislature seats, especially in the race for the House of Delegates seat vacated by retiring Pauline Menes.
An analysis of campaign finance records by The Diamondback also revealed that funds available to the two Democratic senatorial candidates are also extremely close, leaving little advantage for incumbent Sen. John Giannetti or former regent Jim Rosapepe. The two have been locked in an intense, sometimes volatile primary battle for most of the summer.
The records, publicly available through the Maryland State Board of Elections, show a highly competitive race between candidate for state delegate Ben Barnes and city Councilwoman Joseline Peña-Melnyk. Despite Peña-Melnyk running independently of the two major slates, she has raised nearly as much money as Barnes and has nearly $2,000 more cash on hand.
In the Maryland State Senate race for District 21, where College Park lies, Gianetti has about a $17,000 advantage in private contributions over Democratic challenger Rosapepe. The Diamondback chose to analyze both donations made by political action committees and organizations, as well as those made by individuals, because a high number of individual donations could indicate a wider support among voting constituents for candidates.
On Sunday, however, Giannetti admitted to discrepancies reported by the Laurel Leader that his reported contributions from organizations were inflated by about $30,000, which significantly cuts his financial edge over Rosapepe, although Giannetti campaign manager pointed out that Rosapepe’s competitive fundraising partly stems from large personal loans made to the campaign that must be repaid.
Mark Cook, Tekisha Everette and Laurel City Councilman Mike Sarich, all running on Giannetti’s slate, have raised less than $20,000 each, putting them far behind Peña-Melnyk and Barnes, who have each raised about $50,000.
The only exception to the contentious races in the legislature is county council candidate and College Park city Councilman Eric Olson, who has about a $9,000 cash-on-hand lead over his closest competitor, Flo Hendershot.
Questioned about the financing of local races, government and politics professor Paul Herrnson said candidates’ campaign contributions can play a major outcome in closely fought elections.
“Candidates wage two campaigns, one for votes and one for finances and other resources,” said Herrnson, who advised the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on a project to build a searchable campaign finance database. “You can’t run a successful campaign to win votes without a successful campaign to raise funds.”
Though there is far less emphasis on fundraising at the local level than in national and statewide campaigns that rely heavily on expensive radio and television advertisements, Herrnson said money can buy important campaign tools such as lawn signs and letters to residents.
“Most of the time the candidate who raises the most money usually wins,” Herrnson said, pointing out that in most cases incumbents have the name recognition and resources to raise more money.
Highlighting the difference in the spending between Giannetti and Rosapepe, Herrnson noted that Giannetti’s signs were the most expensive he’s ever seen.
“Giannetti’s got the whole rainbow in there, it’s very expensive to do that,” Herrnson said of Giannetti’s signs with his face on them, pictures that incorporate millions of pixels to the color. Rosapepe’s signs have three colors.
Herrnson said candidates also spend a great deal of time on the phone and meeting with political organizations to raise money for their campaigns. He also noted a candidates’ fundraising prowess can sometimes be deceiving because candidates often loan their campaigns money from personal accounts and many people who can’t vote in an election contribute financially to campaigns.
Acknowledging the disadvantage he faces because of Giannetti’s personal bank account and name recognition, Rosapepe said he’s doing a lot of campaigning that doesn’t cost money such as going door to door.
Giannetti has also done his share of inexpensive campaigning, such as participating in a 24-hour sign wave on Route 1. Most local candidates rely on volunteers to get the work of their campaign done.
While Rosapepe receives a large amount of contributions from private citizens and groups, he said he was dismayed at some of the contributions Giannetti accepted, in particular a $250 donation he received from Dick Hug, a top Maryland fundraiser for both Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich and President George W. Bush. Rosapepe said he wished elections were publicly financed so there would be less influence by special interest groups and more focus would be placed on working with residents.
“It’s more important where you’re getting money from than how you’re raising it,” Rosapepe said. “It tells you something about the different candidates, who’s supporting them.”
While the importance of money cannot be overlooked, candidates stressed there are many factors that contribute election success.
“You need all of the pieces of the puzzle together to have a winning campaign,” Olson said. “People have different theories about what works. I believe mailings have a good effect, only after you’ve gone out into the community.”
Barnes said campaigns have three main resources: people, money and time.
“Obviously money allows you to reach people,” but ultimately “people look at who they’ve seen in their neighborhood,” he said.
Several candidates stressed there is a fine line between receiving votes and raising money, and most said the time spent on fundraising often takes away from time spent on meeting wish constituents.
A study by Herrnson for the university found nearly one-third of all state legislative candidates report that they devote at least one in four hours on the campaign trail collecting campaign contributions.
Contact reporter Owen Praskievicz at praskieviczdbk@gmail.com.
