AUGUSTA — As Tuesday’s election looms large, one candidate for mayor has both raised and spent significantly more money campaigning than his opponent, a pattern repeated by one candidate for city council who also outraised and outspent her two opponents.

Current at-large City Councilor David Rollins, according to the most recent campaign finance reports filed with the city, brought in $14,360 in campaign contributions and spent about $13,430.

His opponent on the ballot, former mayor and City Councilor William E. Dowling, appears to have brought in about $2,260, and spent about $605 over the same time period.

The latest reports, which were due at Augusta City Center Oct. 24, cover the period of Sept. 17 to Oct. 21. Thus, the figures reported don’t include the final two weeks of campaign contributions and spending.

Rollins said the amount of money he’s raised and spent is in line with what other candidates have spent to win the mayor’s seat in the past, and he is humbled and honored local residents have stepped forward to support his campaign with cash.

“I think it shows a broad base of support and a high level of effort to go out and meet with people,” Rollins said Friday. “Many of my donors are historical supporters who’ve been with me all along. I’m humbled and honored by the support I did get.”

Advertisement

Dowling, meanwhile, said he expected to be outfundraised and outspent by Rollins. He said he would not spend that kind of money to be elected mayor.

“If the voters choose to go with that, that’s their prerogative,” Dowling said. “I’m a proven candidate, running to serve the city. I’m not going to try to buy an election.”

Dowling’s campaign finance filing was missing part of the required information, two pages that would list the amount of total expenditures and campaign receipts.

City Clerk Barbara Wardwell said Friday she had spoken to Dowling’s treasurer, Tom Foster, to request the missing parts of the report, and he said he had overlooked the last two pages and planned to bring them in Monday.

Dowling said the $2,260 figure, calculated by adding up the individual contributions listed, which was on file with the city, sounded about right, though some campaign donations and expenditures have been made since his treasurer filed reports with the city on his behalf.

He said if parts of the reports were missing it was simply a mistake and future filings would “be filed in order, correct, and with everything substantiated.”

Advertisement

SIGNS AND OTHER ADS

Dowling spent $500 for advertising with the Kennebec Journal and paid $105 to Hannah Manufacturing for sign stencils. He said he also bought campaign signs from J.S. McCarthy.

Rollins’ campaign expenditures were also largely for advertising, including numerous newspaper ads and lawn signs, and a direct mailing. He spent, during the reporting period, $3,843 for nine ads in the Kennebec Journal, and $5,335 for lawn signs and direct mailing materials from J.S. McCarthy.

Rollins also paid a total of $3,000, in two, $1,500 payments, to Roberts and Associates for management of his campaign when it was in its early stages. Rollins said those payments were to Don Roberts, who initially served as his campaign manager, but who later withdrew from the role to avoid having the appearance of a conflict of interest in Roberts’ role as a political columnist for the Kennebec Journal.

Roberts wrote in a Sept. 14 column in the Kennebec Journal he had “withdrawn from any and all personal involvement with the Rollins campaign (paid or volunteered) in order to maintain independence,” for his “All Politics is Local,” column, and avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Rollins, who started campaigning for the then-still-occupied mayor’s seat during the summer, said the payments to Roberts were for management services to his campaign from June 1 to Aug. 31, prior to the Sept. 5 deadline to file nomination papers to be listed on the ballot as a candidate for mayor.

Advertisement

Contributions to Rollins’ campaign include a combined $1,500 from the candidate himself and his wife, Jan, $500 from O’Connor Motors, $750 from Laborers Local Union 327, $500 from Charlie’s Motor Mall, $100 from Ward 2 City Councilor Darek Grant, $200 from Greater Augusta Utility District Board of Trustees Chairman Ken Knight, and $750 from G&E Roofing.

Contributions to Dowling’s campaign include $500 from the candidate himself, $300 from local businessman Larry Fleury, $400 from Kevin Mattson who is an owner of Dowling’s employer Dirigo Capital Advisors, $150 from Gary and Leah Peachey of Peachey Builders, and $200 from Norman Pomerleau, who also donated $250 to Rollins’ campaign, one of a few donors who donated to both of the competitors for the mayor’s seat.

Ward 1 City Councilor Michael Byron, who is term-limited out of his council seat and who has filed with the city to be an official write-in candidate for mayor, reported in his filing with the city he has not brought in any campaign contributions and spent $352 with Garant Graphics for 48 lawn signs.

Thus Byron, who has previously said he didn’t file nomination papers to run as an on-the-ballot candidate for mayor because he couldn’t afford to run a full-fledged campaign, reported his campaign had debt of $352, the cost of his campaign signs.

The winner of the mayoral race will serve the remaining year of former Mayor William Stokes’ term in the city’s top elective post. Stokes resigned in July when he was appointed a state superior court justice.

City council

Advertisement

In the three-way race for the Ward 1 City Council seat being vacated by Byron, filings show one candidate, Linda Conti, a member of the city’s Planning Board, both raised and spent considerably more than her opponents, former city councilors Stanley Koski and Mary Mayo-Wescott.

Conti raked in campaign contributions of $2,300 and, as of the Oct. 24 filing deadline, spent $2,022.

Her expenditures included $336 to Signs on the Cheap for lawn signs, $513 to Copy Center for palm cards and leaflets, $702 to the U.S. Postal Service for stamps and $395 to Quality Copy and Digital Print for a mailer.

Her campaign contributions include $500 from At-Large City Councilor Cecil Munson, $100 from At-Large Councilor Dale McCormick, $500 from Conti herself, and $200 each from brothers Norman and Roger Pomerleau.

Koski, during the time period of Sept. 17 to Oct. 21 covered by the filing requirements, raised and spent nothing, his report indicates.

Mayo-Wescott brought in $319 total over the reporting period, $229 of that her own money, and the other $90 from other contributions of $50 or less each. Contributors of less than $50 each don’t have to be listed on finance reports. Mayo-Wescott spent that same $319, on items including $82 to Circle K for fuel while campaigning, and several expenditures of between $24 and $71 at various stores for printer cartridges.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardskj


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.