Mayoral Candidates Report Raising Over $200K Combined In 3 Months

Great news! These numbers mean lots of New Haveners, and a good many with other connections to the city, care enough about what happens in New Haven to put up a few dollars to back their vision for the city. I, also, really like how the Democracy Fund favors small dollar donors, with amount under $60 being matched, but those above it not being matched.

It always struck me as crazy that all those dollars raised for campaigns could be better spent on programs assisting humans with basic needs, instead of on advertising and campaign expenses.
Especially in this age of social media and the internet. I would challenge the candidates to use the Internet and social media and contact the media to get free publicity about their campaigns, and donate the majority of the money they receive to non-profit programs and social services that help the people of the city directly.
I wish every political campaign would only be allowed the identical amount of public financing for campaigns, and no other funds allowed, so that everyone would be on an equal footing for the dollars to be spent on campaigning. Then instead of paying for campaigns, donors could donate to charities in the candidates name, and the measure of whether someone is considered a legitimate contender for the public elected office would be measured in how many non-profit charity donations were made in their name, instead of campaign dollars raised.
Money for human needs, not political campaigns.

Heather, Unfortunately, limits on campaign speeding were ruled unconstitutional limits on speech in 1978. (Buckley v. Valeo)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckley_v._Valeo

In many cases, donors feel their money will be more effective if they give to a candidate who will use the coercive power of the state to force others to financially support their causes. So, rather than give to a food bank, they give to candidates who will tax others to fund SNAP. More money can be raised for charitable purposes if donors can be jailed if they do not contribute.

@ NHI - Are you sure your numbers are correct?

Today I received an email from the KDW campaign stating that they had received money from over 1,000 donors, setting a new record.

[Paul: Thanks for double-checking that! Here's what the press release stated: "DuBois-Walton raised just over $137,000 for the period that ended last week in 935 contributions from 764 contributors. Of the total raised, $106,390 came from individual contributors, with the remaining $30,786 from grants and matching donations by the Democracy Fund of New Haven, whose goal is to keep big-money special interests and political action committees out of the election process by encouraging smaller, individual contributions."

@Heather C: "I wish every political campaign would only be allowed the identical amount of public financing for campaigns, and no other funds allowed, so that everyone would be on an equal footing for the dollars to be spent on campaigning. "

This is going to be a really close election. Money is on KDW.

Would like to see the Mayoral candidates discuss government transparency and accessibility more as this was a leading platform for current Mayor Elicker. For example, unlike the Board of Education, many City departments do not make their public meetings easily accessible for the public to join in real-time or post their meeting agendas/ minutes in a timely manner on their website, YouTube, etc. This includes the City Plan, the Health Department, Disability Services, etc. This is very disappointing and I would like both candidates to address this as residents are stakeholders in our City government!

For every big dollar donated, there is a favor owed to someone ( and it's not you $20 donors). Remember that.

With 50-70% of contributions coming from New Haven Residents, seems like the NHI and everyone else should be asking, "Who and where is that OTHER money coming from?"

The fact that only about a 1,000 NH residents in a city of 130,000 gave to either shows the average NH resident is savvy enough to realize both are bad business.

Since these candidates are both LINING their campaign troves with OUTSIDE money, they should be banned from using the Democracy Fund. The fund was created to encourage participation in our republican form of government, not be a slush fund for candidates with already enough money to run a campaign.

1644- thanks for the info. But just because something is legal doesn't make it morally correct.
If every political candidate had an equal amount of public funding to run their campaign and measured donations made in their name to worthy social service programs and causes that benefit the public to qualify for candidacy, then instead of just the wealthy and well connected qualifying for running for elected office, anyone could run further office based on their ideas and not their wealth or ability to generate wealthy donors dollars. Plus we could get more funding for programs and services that directly benefit the people who need it the most.