Councilors in mayor race top cash pace
Essaibi-George takes the most in March; Campbell has biggest bank
Fundraising for Boston’s mayoral race reached a fever pitch in March as donors hurled more than $1.17 million dollars at the various candidates — as Annissa Essaibi-George led the way for the month and Andrea Campbell kept her hold on the overall money lead.
All of the six major candidates in the race to replace now-former Mayor Martin Walsh raised more than $175,000 a piece.
Essaibi-George, an at-large city councilor, easily won the month with a total haul of $244,516. She also spent the most — $88,497 — to end up with a total of $426,312 in the bank just over two months into her run.
That’s still well behind the total money leader, the district councilor Campbell, whose war chest is sitting at $974,846 after the second-best month of the six major candidates at $203,108. Campbell, who’s been in the race since September, spent $69,603.
At-Large City Councilor Michelle Wu has the second-highest amount of dough in total, with $941,192, but she raised the least of the major candidates during the month, pulling in $175,440 while spending $67,616.
John Barros, who was Walsh’s economic development director, raised $182, 447 while spending $14,496 in his first month in the race. He has a total of $228,697 in the bank.
State Rep. Jon Santiago followed up a $230,000-plus haul in his first month in February with $180,959 in March. He spent $42,237 last month, leaving him with a total of $525,991.
Acting Mayor Kim Janey, the city council president who became the city’s first Black and first female chief executive when Walsh left last month, wasn’t technically in the race for a full term until this Tuesday, but she’s been widely expected to run, and had been fundraising hard off of the mayoral transition for the whole month of March. She raised $187,327 and spent $69,025, ending the month with a total of $248,566.
Walsh resigned March 22 to become President Joe Biden’s Labor secretary. He’d been expecting to run for a third term this year — with the bumper stickers printed out and everything, he told reporters as he resigned — and, polling well for his response to the pandemic, was expected to be in a very strong position to win a third term even though Wu and Campbell, two well-established candidates, were already running against him. His impending departure, announced in January, opened up the floodgates for the other candidates to join.
With Janey’s entrance this week, the unknowns around the field are shrinking. The only potential other major candidate is state Sen. Nick Collins, who’s said to be mulling a run. Collins raised $43,261 and spent $24,958 for a total of $68,647 in the bank after March.