After just eight months of campaigning, mayoral candidate Lenny Curry has passed a major milestone.
Curry’s fundraising total topped $2.1 million on the heels of a huge January, which brought in $439,585.
The bulk of the money came through his political action committee, Together for a Greater Jacksonville, which collected $329,500, according to numbers released by the campaign.
Curry’s local account received $110,085 in contributions.
Last month, Curry pulled within $75,000 of Mayor Alvin Brown’s nearly $1.72 million war chest, despite the mayor having a 15-month head start on his biggest challenger. Brown began raising money for his re-election in March 2013; Curry started in June of last year.
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Brown did not list any contributions for Jan. 1-16 for his local account in a report filed. The report for the second half of the month is due Feb. 10. The January report for Brown’s Taking Jacksonville to the Next Level political action committee is due next week.
Spokesmen for Brown’s campaign, did not return an email requesting information on Brown’s January efforts.
City Council member Bill Bishop has raised $73,570 through Jan. 16 for his mayoral run, according to campaign records.
Brian Hughes, a spokesman for Curry’s campaign, said nearly $14,000 was raised online for the local account in final three days of the month. Most of that, he said, came in amounts of less than $100.
An event hosted by Marc and Nicole Padgett of Summit Contracting brought in more than $100,000 in one night for the PAC. The company contributed $10,000 to the committee July 3 and Aug. 12.
Hughes said the PAC also received $10,000 from Neal Freeman, whom he described as "a serious conservative thinker who was a confidant of William Buckley and advised his mayoral run in (New York City)."
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