In the final days of this year's mayoral election, Mayor Megan Barry spent more than double her opponent David Fox to firm up her bid to become Nashville's new mayor.
While Fox spent more overall in the race than Barry (who, side note, got a $500 contribution from the senior vice president of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Janet Marie Smith), her third quarter disclosures show she out-spent Fox by more than $416,000 in the month of September alone.
Here's how much money Barry and Fox spent overall:
For the final two mayoral candidates, the third quarter includes all of September, although the runoff election was held Sept. 10.
From July 28 (the pre-runoff election reporting period which also includes the days leading up to the Aug. 6 general election) through the end of September, Barry reported spending $1.4 million to clinch her election, beating Fox by a comfortable 10 percentage point margin. Fox, in that time, spent $987,610.
Here's how much money Barry and Fox raised overall:
In total, Fox out-raised Barry by about $385,000, although $1.56 million in his war chest came from personal loans he made to his campaign. Fox reported having about $50,000 left on-hand and about $88,000 in outstanding obligations. He has not attempted to pay himself back, according to commission records.
Campaign disclosures for Charles Robert Bone, Bill Freeman and Howard Gentry were not available from the Davidson County Election Commission, but Jeremy Kane and Linda Rebrovick's were in. An official with the commission said disclosures had to be postmarked by Oct. 12. We'll give the full review when those come in.
Citizen Super PAC, the politically conservative political action committee funded almost entirely by David Fox’s brother George, spent $151,057 in the final days of the mayoral election, bringing the total contribution of outside PAC money to Nashville's mayor's race to $824,488 in spending.
George Fox threw down $1 million on his brother’s bid for election, beginning with a $500,000 check to the PAC during the general election and another one a week after David Fox made the runoff.
The PAC bought and produced ads and mailers earlier in the race, and during the final 10 days before the runoff — while Fox was riding what he thought would be a successful wave challenging Barry’s religious beliefs — the PAC spent $70,000 on get out the vote mailers, radio ads and phone banking. The committee spent another $35,750 on political analytics closer to the middle of the month, after the race had ended.
