Simmons is biggest fundraiser in Dist. 3
Holds wide margin, with $12,175 in donations so far
Sherry Simmons has raised far more money than her opponents in the Republican race for the District 3 Shelby County Commission seat, according to recent campaign disclosure forms.
Simmons, a teacher in the Shelby County Schools and wife of Bartlett Alderman Bobby Simmons, showed $12,175 in donations through March, including a significant number of individual contributions between $100 and $500. Candidates must itemize contributions of $100 or more.
Of the other candidates, David Reaves showed $ 3,268 raised through March on the report. Naser Fazlullah reported $2,204. There was no report shown on the Shelby County Election Com- mission website for Kelly Price, but Price said in an e-mail that he filed one and had raised about $2,000.
“I think it’s more about people coming to vote than just getting money from them,” Price said in the e-mail. “We need to focus more on the real issues and touching the voters and finding out their problems.”
Fazlullah, Price, Reaves and Simmons are running in the May 6 Republican Primary for the commission district that represents Bartlett and Lakeland. There are no Democrats on the ballot, so the May 6 winner will serve the district.
Simmons reported 57 contributions of $100 or more. The most were $500 contributions. Among the familiar names in the contributors were state Rep. Jim Coley, R-Bartlett, former county government leader Bobby Lanier, Ar- lington Town Supt. Ed Haley, the Family Leisure business and City Council member Jim Strickland.
The Farris Bobango PLC and Turley Properties are on the list as is Bartlett alderman Bubba Pleasant and his wife, Jane. Jimmy Moore and Bartlett alderman Paula Sedgwick contributed funds from their campaign accounts.
Of the $12,175 reported by March 31, Simmons had spent about $2,300. She entered the race thinking she would need about $15,000 to run an effective campaign with yard signs, T-shirts, robocalls, push cards and other promo-
tional materials.
Simmons said she had two fundraisers that helped with the contributions. “It’s just knowing so many people and having networked for so long.”
She said some are helping because of her long tenure in education working with children.
But, she is aware that having that many donations can contribute to accusations that she becomes beholden to the donors.
“I think about that when people give me money, and I don’t think I’ve received any money from anybody that would, like, hold me hostage because they gave me a campaign contribution,” Simmons said. “I wouldn’t expect that at all from the people that donated money to my campaign. I know that does happen, and you do have to think about that because people are going to sometimes want something in return.”
Reaves, a county school board member, said he was not surprised by the amount of money raised by Simmons because of her and her husband’s connections around the county. “I’m not going to knock how much they’ve raised,” he said, adding he didn’t see that the difference in campaign funds was significant.
“I’ll take substance over fundraising any day,” Reaves said, adding that he concentrates on door-todoor campaigning. “I think it is a much more effective way to campaign.”
Unl i ke Si mmons, Reaves only listed two individual contributions, one of them $1,000 from Billy Orgel of Tower Ventures, also a member of the county school board. Otherwise, he said, he relied on contributions from “soccer moms and football dads.”
Fazlullah expressed surprise at the amount of money others raised for a local campaign. He said he asked a few “friends and family members” for donations, but the rest of the campaign funds are from his own pocket. He did receive a pair of $500 contributions and another of $150. He acknowledges he is “nowhere close” to the money he believes is necessary to run an effective campaign.
“I’m at a tremendous disadvantage,” the small business owner said. “You can’t even compare. You’re talking about a dollar against $50 or $100. It’s a tremendous difference.”