When it comes to fundraising for his re-election campaign, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter maintains a sizable lead over the four other mayoral candidates, though challenger Kaohly Her has wasted no time in raising campaign cash.
Carter announced Tuesday that he was entering the final two months of the mayor’s race with more than $212,000 in cash on hand from nearly 800 citywide donors, representing “his strongest ever eight-week position” in a political race, according to a written statement from his campaign. Four years ago at this time, he had about $69,000 on hand.
The mayor’s official campaign finance filing with Ramsey County Elections showed he had raised about $216,000 from Jan. 1 through Sept. 8, compared to $157,000 in the same period in 2021.
Donors have included Charlie Zelle, outgoing chair of the Metropolitan Council; Matt Majka, chief executive officer of the Minnesota Wild; former city finance director John McCarthy; St. Paul City Council Member Molly Coleman; former professional soccer player Tony Sanneh of the Sanneh Foundation; and Jay Cowles of Cowles Media.
Additional donors have included developers Mike Ryan, Chris Sherman, Carl Kaeding, James Stolpestad and Steve Wellington; the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters; St. Paul Pipefitters Local 455; Sprinkler Fitters Local 417; Plumbers Local 34; St. Catherine University president Marcheta Evans; and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
Challenger Kaohly Her’s donors
Her, a state representative and former City Hall employee, has raised more than $74,000 for her campaign and had $63,000 on hand as of Sept. 4, according to her latest campaign finance filing with Ramsey County.
Her two filings to date have listed nearly 200 donors since the recent launch of her campaign. They include developer Ari Parritz, Can Can Wonderland and St. Paul Brewing owner Rob Clapp, University of Minnesota Regent Bo Thao-Urabe, former St. Paul City Council Member Jane Prince and state Rep. Dan Wolgamott, DFL-St. Cloud.
Donors have also included Summit Avenue bikeway opponent Robert Cattanach, Summit Hill Association executive director Monica Haas, MayKao Hang, founding dean of the Morrison Family College of Health at the University of St. Thomas, Mo Chang of Mo’s Tropical Wholesale and a sizable number of additional members of the Hmong community.
Campaign finance reports were due to Ramsey County Elections on Tuesday, eight weeks before the Nov. 4 election. Another report is due Oct. 21, two weeks before the election.
The other candidates who have filed to run in the ranked-choice election are biophysicist Yan Chen, business owner Michael Hilborn and mechanical engineer Adam Dullinger.
Hilborn’s eight-week report indicated he had raised about $22,000 — most of it from donors outside of St. Paul or Minneapolis — and spent more than $21,000 as of this week, leaving about $700 in campaign cash on hand.
No other eight-week reports were available online as of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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