Daily Sitka Sentinel

House Race a Contest Of Money and Donors

By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    With just under three weeks to go until election day, Democratic Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins is leading the fund-raising race over Steven Samuelson, his Republican challenger for the District 35  House seat.

Steven Samuelson, left, and Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins use local coffee shops to talk to voters. (Sentinel Photos)

     According to campaign finance documents from the Alaska Public Offices Commission, Kreiss-Tomkins had pulled in nearly $47,000 as of Oct. 6 compared to $30,865 for Samuelson. The latest APOC numbers cover the period from Aug. 10 through Oct. 3 and the Sentinel took a look at those numbers to get a greener perspective on this year’s campaign.
    Donors
    Kreiss-Tomkins led the way in number of donors but not in money raised during the latest reporting period. He got 105 donations between Aug. 10 and Oct. 3, totaling $13,146.63. Samuelson, meanwhile, was able to pull in $19,510.13 from just 56 donations (some contributors made multiple donations). Of note:
    – Samuelson’s donors contributed an average of $348 compared to an average donation of $125 to the Kreiss-Tomkins campaign.
    – Samuelson’s biggest single contribution was $6,000 from the Capital City Republican Women. In fact, contributions from Republican women groups in Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and Anchorage have accounted for $7,900 – about 40 percent – of Samuelson’s fundraising total.
    – The biggest single donation to Kreiss-Tomkins was $1,000. Kreiss-Tomkins got $1,000 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers political action committee in Anchorage as well as $1,000 from the National Education Association group in Juneau. Kreiss-Tomkins also recorded the smallest individual donation, $2.
    – Samuelson, who was born and raised in Petersburg, did better on Kreiss-Tomkins’ home turf of Sitka than Kreiss-Tomkins did in Petersburg. Samuelson got 10 Sitka-based donations totaling $1,530. Kreiss-Tomkins  got only two donations from Petersburg, equaling $600. Of course, Petersburg has about a third as many people as Sitka.
    – About 21 percent of Samuelson’s money during the latest reporting period came from donors with Petersburg addresses. Samuelson’s hometown supported him to the tune of $4,080 from 23 donotions.
    – Sitkans pulling for Kreiss-Tomkins did so by way of $5,829.63 from 68 different donations. That equals approximately 44 percent of the total money raised during the August to October stretch.
    Expenses
    Thus far Kreiss-Tomkins has spent $1.71 for every dollar spent by Samuelson. APOC has Samuelson’s total campaign expenses at $18,314.85 compared to $31,316.17 for Kreiss-Tomkins. In this latest reporting period the difference was even greater with Kreiss-Tomkins spending $23,259.71 while Samuelson poured $9,070.30 into the race. That means Kreiss-Tomkins outspent Samuelson at a clip of over 2.5:1.
    – Not all of the money Kreiss-Tomkins spent went toward yard signs and advertising. Consulting fees ate up the majority (76 percent) of his costs in this latest period. Kreiss-Tomkins got $17,730.26 worth of advice from two consultants.
    – Samuelson’s biggest expense was on signs, where he spent $5,100. (Sitka residents may have noticed Samuelson’s large 4-foot-by-8-foot signs around town.)
    – Kreiss-Tomkins spent $156.66 on Facebook and email marketing.
    – Samuelson spent $100 on a photo shoot in Petersburg.
    – Kreiss-Tomkins, who frequently campaigns out of the Backdoor Cafe, apparently uses a similar strategy on the road. In addition to the Backdoor, the campaign registered a number of small expenses at Red Eye Desserts in Tenakee Springs and Southeast Waffle Company in Juneau.
    Cash on Hand
    Both candidates have a sizeable war chest built up for the final 13 days of the campaign based on what they earned up to October alone. If neither candidate earned another cent after Oct. 3 they’d still have a combined $26,335.06 left to spend on getting their messages out.
    Kreiss-Tomkins had the bigger surplus with just under $16,000. Samuelson was sitting with around $10,500 as of Oct. 3.
    Election day is Nov. 4.