Keller overwhelms Lewis in fundraising
Political action committees raise $230K for state auditor in advance of Nov. 14 runoff
State Auditor and Albuquerque mayoral candidate Tim Keller has all but exhausted the $125,000 in public financing he received to run his campaign for the Nov. 14 runoff, according to the latest round of campaign finance reports filed Friday.
But two political action committees supporting him have raised a combined $230,000 in the last two weeks, more than three times the amount raised by Keller’s opponent, City Councilor Dan Lewis.
Election Day is Nov. 14. Early voting is underway but will end Friday.
Lewis reported raising a little more than $64,000 from Oct. 20 to Nov. 2, and he had $71,000 left in the bank.
His top contributors included People for Pearce, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce’s political committee, and Premier Distributing Company, each giving $5,192. Don Bruckner, with Buebert Bruckner P.C., and Sunwest Trust Inc. each gave Lewis’ campaign $5,000.
“We are exactly where our finance team planned to be at this time,” Lewis said Friday. “We hit the goal.”
ABQ Forward Together, one of the committee’s backing Keller’s run, reported raising more than $180,000 during the last two weeks, with more than $57,000 coming from unions. AFSCME International was the biggest contributor, kicking in $35,000.
The committee spent $225,000, mostly on media buys, during the reporting period and still had about $47,000 in the bank.
“The support in our community for Tim Keller is strong,” said Neri Holguin, chairwoman of ABQ Forward Together. “Tim’s the change candidate, and people are doing all they can to help elect him our next mayor.”
ABQ Working Families, another political action committee supporting Keller, raised $50,000, all from the Civic Participation Action Fund, a Washington, D.C., group. ABQ Working Families still has $52,000 on hand.
During the past two weeks, both Keller and Lewis have spent most of their campaign funds on advertising, primarily television and radio ads. Lewis reported spending $77,000 on media buys for television and radio for his “The Keller Con” spots.
Keller paid $101,000 to a firm for advertising. He spent a total of $124,600 during the last two weeks and had about $1,300 left in his campaign war chest.