Essaibi-George leads in February fundraising
Annissa Essaibi-George leapt to the front of the pack in monthly fundraising for the city’s mayoral race in February, with Andrea Campbell holding the lead in overall cash on hand.
Essaibi-George, a city councilor who jumped into the race at the end of January, raked in $192,143 during her first full calendar month in the race, according to February data released Tuesday by the state Office of Campaign & Political Finance. That’s compared to $157,307 from Campbell and $136,357 from Michelle Wu, two other city councilors in the race.
After having spent $74,827 in the month on political consultants, a poll and the like, Essaibi-George has $270,295 on hand. That’s still well behind Campbell and Wu, who have both been in the race since September. Campbell has $841,341 cash on hand after spending $59,382 for the month, and Wu now has $833,367 after dropping $44,938, according to the OCPF data.
Campbell and Wu both had monster months in January after President Biden picked Mayor Martin Walsh on Jan. 7 to become his Labor secretary, blowing the mayoral race wide open. Campbell led the way that month, but both pulled in over $250,000.
State Rep. Jon Santiago’s campaign numbers had not been posted as of Tuesday evening, and his campaign declined to release numbers, saying they’d be out Wednesday. Santiago entered the race last week, at the end of the month.
The state hadn’t posted the numbers for City Council President Kim Janey, who will become acting mayor when Walsh leaves and is considering a run of her own, though deposit reports showed she’d raised over $42,000 in the month through Feb. 26. This comes after raising $0.00 in January.
When exactly the monthly report posts — and whether periodic deposit reports show up throughout the month or not — is largely up to the bank each candidate is using.
State Sen. Nick Collins and John Barros, who resigned last week from his job as Walsh’s economic development chief, are also considering runs. There was no OCPF report available for Barros, and Collins took in just over $19,000 and spent about $1,000 less than that for the month.
Longshot candidate Dana Depelteau, a hotel manager, reported an intake of $100, which he donated to his own campaign.