Barrett, Blackmer Lead in Fundraising for House Special Election
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The four Democrats running the Oct. 10 primary to fill the vacant 1st Berkshire District seat in the House of Representatives have raised a combined $38,250, according to reports filed with the commonwealth's Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
John Barrett III, former mayor, has a narrow lead in dollars raised over Lisa Hall Blackmer, a city councilor, according to numbers reported on the OCPF website.
Barrett reported $13,470 in contributions to Blackmer's $12,590.
Trailing behind are Stephanie Bosley and Kevin Towle, with $7,200 and $4,990, respectively. As of 3 p.m., no numbers were reported for the lone candidate on the Republican primary ballot, Christine Canning.
Monday was the deadline to report contributions for the period from July 1 through Sept. 22.
Twenty-three of 41 itemized donations reported by Barrett were for $100. In addition, the campaign reported $4,495 in unitemized donations, about a third of the total collected in donations.
Barrett reported receiving three $1,000 donations to his campaign. Those donors were Brian Renaud and Daniel Trombley, each of Williamstown, and David Whitney of North Adams.
The overwhelming majority of itemized donors in Barrett's report listed residences in the district. He did receive $500 from Fred Windover of Boston and $500 from James Maxymillian of Pittsfield.
Blackmer reported 40 contributions, most notably a $10,000 candidate loan to herself. The other 40 contributions ranged from $20 to $250. The largest contribution to Blackmer came from Williamstown's Sharon and Charles Nesmer for $250. Blackmer also received $200 from Williamsburg's Matt Barron.
Blackmer cited no unitemized contributions.
Bosley reported 66 individual contributors and no unitemized contributions.
Contributions to Bosley's campaign ranged from $12.50 to $500. Four contributions of $500 were reported, the maximum amount from any one donor to the Bosley campaign: Weston's Peter Bassette, Pittsfield's John Downing, Boston's Dan Hunter, and Williamstown's John Notsley.
All of Towle's contributions also were itemized, ranging from $10 to $1,000.
Among the 16 contributions he reported were four for $1,000 from two different households.
Lanesborough's Barbara Hassan and Kenneth Hassan each contributed $1,000, and Westfield's Annie Potts and Harold Potts each contributed $1,000 toward Towle's campaign.
In the initial reporting period, Bosley cited the highest expenditures of the three candidates for whom figures are available.
She reported spending $5,712.82, more than double the amount spent by either Barrett ($2,403.11) or Towle ($2,273,43).
Bosley spent nearly 80 percent of her receipts, leaving her with a balance of $1,487.18.
Towle reported spending about half of what he took in, leaving him with $2,716.57 in the bank. Barrett spent just 18 percent of his contributions, giving him a balance of $11,290.95.
Blackmer spent the highest percentage of contributions received to date. Her report lists $11,8242.76 in expenditures — 94 percent of the amount she has raised, leaving her with $862.59 in the bank.
The last time there was a contested Democratic primary was the 2010 election that sent Gailanne Cariddi to the Legislature. That year, a total of $109,654.55 was raised among the three candidates in the race.
The winner, Cariddi, reported raising $43,907.36, a little more than that raised by her nearest rival in the three-person race. David Bissaillon reported receipts of $43,277.09; Edward MacDonald raised $22,469.68.
There were no Republicans in that race.
Tags: campaign spending, election 2017, primary,
