Gov race sees gaps in donation totals
Donor demographics are varied in occupation, location
The race for the open governor’s seat is heating up, with the top candidate, Maura Healey, banking over $1.4 million in the past three months alone. The Herald analyzed the four candidates’ coffers from 2022 so far and found a yawning gap between the highest and lowest average donations.
Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey, thought to be the frontrunner in the race, raked in the highest average donation of $336.
Former state Rep. Geoff Diehl, a Republican who’s been endorsed by Donald Trump, has the lowest average donation at $103.
Republican businessman Chris Doughty earned the second-highest average donation amount, at $245, while Democratic state Sen. Sonia Chang- Diaz’s average donation was $183.
There’s a mandatory annual donation cap of $1,000 per candidate for individuals.
Healey’s $1.4 million raised this year came from 4,293 donations. The highest number of her donors, 493 of them, hailed from Boston, where Healey lives. The other municipalities where she had high numbers of donations are mostly well-off areas surrounding Boston, including 196 donors from Cambridge, 136 from Brookline, 128 from Newton and 79 from Lexington.
Healey also drew a high number of donations from outside of Massachusetts, including 89 from New York, 52 from California, 40 from D.C., 35 from New Hampshire, where she grew up, and 33 from Florida.
Many Healey donors are lawyers like her — over 600 of them, in fact. She also received 172 donations from consultants, 77 from CEOs, 79 from retired people, 69 from physicians and 47 from professors.
Chris Doughty, a firsttime politician, received 264 total donations, although a few of those were from his own committee. Since January, he has given himself $587,000 total through three separate transactions: a candidate loan, the Doughty Committee and Doughty for Governor.
His spokesperson said that the campaign is “pleased with the initial response, and we continue to see growth,” considering that he is not a politician by trade.
Doughty, a Mormon, received 10 donations from Salt Lake City, and 28 donations from Utah, heavily Mormon areas. He also received 18 donations from his hometown of Wrentham, 7 from Franklin and 5 from Braintree.
Progressive Democrat Sonia Chang-Díaz received 2,159 donations this year for a total of $395,339. Many of her donors came from urban areas, including 272 from Boston, 185 from her home neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, 100 from Cambridge, 83 from Somerville and 62 from Roslindale.
Chang-Díaz received 481 donations from unemployed people, 111 from attorneys, 72 from consultants and 58 from teachers. Her campaign noted that in March, 78% of donations were $100 or less, and 50% of donations were from new donors.
Republican Geoff Diehl received 2,186 donations this year, for $225,783 raised.
His donations came largely from outside Boston, with 50 from Braintree, 44 from Plymouth, 41 from Boston, 35 from Quincy, 26 from Weymouth and 34 from Peabody. He also received 11 donations from Key Largo, Florida and 5 from Naples, Florida.
He received 612 donations from retired people, 27 from salespeople, 93 from self-employed people, 13 from students and 15 from engineers.