Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague outraised the other three candidates for City Council, garnering support from his constituents, family members, fellow elected officials and labor organizations ahead of Tuesday’s election.
The Iowa City Council money race is coming into focus as Election Day draws near. All four candidates submitted campaign finance disclosures to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board’s web reporting system showing how much they raised and spent.
Teague brought in $7,842 from 100 total donors. Megan Alter, another candidate for one of the two at-large seats on the City Council, raised $6,915 from 102 donors. The third at-large candidate, Jason Glass, raised $3,865 from 50 donors. Shawn Harmsen, who is running unopposed for the District B seat, raised $6,259 from 106 donations.
“I think that people really wanted to ensure that the campaign that I was running for this community had some resources,” Teague said.
Like the other candidates, much of Teague’s money went toward expenses like mailers, campaign signs, office supplies and advertising.
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Teague and Glass spend their own money on campaign
While Teague outraised the other candidates, Glass ended up spending more than all of his opponents combined.
In total, Glass spent $650 of the money he fundraised for his campaign, but also chose to finance campaign costs early on with $22,334 of his own cash. By comparison, Teague, Alter and Harmsen only spent $17,217 combined.
Glass said campaign startup costs like website creation and design, logo design and advertising, were costs he chose to take on himself. He said he didn’t focus on fundraising during his campaign, but rather reached out in-person and online to potential voters.
“I wanted to make sure I had quality materials and quality web presence and spent what I needed to in order to reasonably do that,” he said. “I am very pleased with the quality of my website, my materials, my Facebook and my logo and yard signs.”
Glass’s disclosure said he spent $6,397 on web fees and $4,627 on printing costs for mailers, among other campaign costs.
Glass