Campaign funds spike as Council candidates approach primary ***UPDATED Friday 12 p.m.***

12 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7: The original version of this article contained a link to campaign finance reports on the Buncombe Board of Elections website, where candidate Mark Cates’ pre-primary report was actually a copy of the earlier report his campaign. According to Rachel Rathbone, who oversees campaign finance for the board, Cates’ campaign submitted the correct report, but the older one was displayed on the website due to an error. The proper report is now online. The figures in the original post were from hard copies of the reports, including Cates’, reviewed by Xpress in the Board of Elections, and remain accurate

The latest campaign funding reports came in this week, showing Asheville City Council candidates in the midst of heated fundraising leading into the primary election.

The pre-primary reports, filed earlier this week, show six candidates with increasing funds as election day nears. In some cases, candidates have more than doubled their funds since the last report (in early September). The total amounts raised are as follows, in order, with the amounts reported in early September in parentheses.

Marc Hunt $22,946 (up from $20,641)
Mark Cates $20,011 (up from $12,269)
Chris Pelly $11,054 (up from $9,841)
Jan Davis $9,875 (up from $3,591)
Lael Gray $9,784 (up from $6,734)
Saul Chase $8,740 (up from $7,880)

Candidates TJ Thomasson and Tim Peck each signed agreements to limit spending to under $1,000, so avoiding the legal requirement to report their campaigns’ finances.

The methods used to raise the funds vary. The majority of Hunt’s revenues, for example, are from individual donors, including a number of local business owners, that he gathered relatively early. Cates, meanwhile, has self-financed a large part of his campaign, though individual donors and some organizations (like the Republican Men’s Club) have also donated.

This is the last funding report required before the primary election on Oct. 11. The candidates have one more report due on Oct. 31, just before the Nov. 8 general election.

— David Forbes, senior news reporter

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6 thoughts on “Campaign funds spike as Council candidates approach primary ***UPDATED Friday 12 p.m.***

  1. wncguy

    Where is your data from Mark Cates coming from? If you look at what’s posted, it’s a mess. His pre-primary report has the right cover sheet but is actually his mid-year report. Also on his 35-day report half the summary page is cut off so you can’t read how much he actually brought in. Whats he trying to hide? Maybe that he has slick republican operatives running his campaign…whos paying for them?

  2. reasonable

    Barry, why don’t you help a brutha out? wncguy is mighty confused and you’ve got him all wigged out and paranoid with this bogus “stealth” thing.

    There’s nothing amiss with Mark Cates’ filings. The files came from Buncombe County. If they truncated a page of the 35 Day report, that’s not Mark’s doing.

    And don’t forget to look under ya’lls beds tonight for the boogeyman, too.

    Remember, just because one is paranoid doesn’t mean someone’s not really out to getcha!

    Boogity, boogity, boogity!

    Hilarious.

    • Barry Summers

      There’s nothing bogus about Mr. Cates stealth candidacy. He is a highly partisan, extreme right-wing guy, but he is running on the ‘green economy’ and being ‘non-partisan’, because he thinks that’s how one gets elected in Asheville. His stated goal in that op-ed to the Asheville Daily Planet makes it clear that he adheres to “Tea Party values” and that he considers a stint on City Council to be a stepping stone to carrying the Tea Party agenda to a statewide or even national level.

      His Tea Party writings, the fact that the local Tea Party is whipping up volunteers & contributions for him, the fact that his campaign co-directors are Chair and Vice-Chair of the Buncombe Young Republicans, the fact that the week after announcing his run for City Council, he donated $100 to Tim Moffitt’s campaign, all of these things speak for themselves.

      Sorry if that’s not the help you were hoping for, brutha…

    • Barry Summers

      And I think it’s a legitimate question to ask about his campaign director, Fritz Chaleff, who left a Congressman’s DC staff and $65,000 a year to come work for an unknown City Council candidate in WNC. We know the Pope empire is flooding the state with millions in unregulated monies – Tim Moffitt got over $100,000 in 2010.

      Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean the right wing ISN’T pumping millions into seizing this state, and playing extremely dirty in the process. Mark Cates has aligned himself with this movement, and I will join others in working to keep him off our City Council, no matter how “green” he pretends to be.

  3. RHS

    When Cates was asked by Mtn X who his top three donors were he sidestepped the question by saying all his financial information was at the Buncombe County Board of Elections web site. Yet, how often is this information updated? Seems like another effort on his part to hide and disguise some of the ties he has.

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