by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
Mayor John Delaney’s replacement won’t be peering over Hemming Plaza from the mayor’s office in the St. James Building for 18 months, yet four mayoral hopefuls have already announced their candidacy.
City Council hopefuls are also starting to fill candidacy lists for the 2003 elections. The queue to succeed Delaney and other elected officials isn’t so much about spouting early campaign promises of a “fresh start,” but rather to rattle donation cans hoping for some spare change in the form of campaign contributions.
It may seem early, but coupling a post Sept. 11 hangover, soft economy and the 2002 Florida gubernatorial and congressional elections, some candidates fear there may be very little discretionary money left for local political consideration.
City Council members Alberta Hipps and Ginger Soud have declared their candidacy for mayor. Both were one-time City Council presidents. Soud is a realtor by profession and member of the 25,000-member First Baptist Church. Her husband is Circuit Court Judge A.C. Soud. Those three ties could help her reach the purse strings of three large demographics. While Soud may have a bigger network of special-interest groups from which to draw campaign funding than Hipps, she still employed the “early bird gets the worm” maxim when considering her campaign.
“The election is in the spring of 2003,” Soud told the Daily Record in December. “We are at the end of 2001. What is going to happen between those two dates is a statewide election that’s going to take up most of 2002, certainly beginning by late in the first quarter all the way to next November. It’s going to be very difficult for local candidates to raise money during that period or to be heard or seen because you are going to be focusing on the governor and the legislative races and the cabinet races and all of those things.”
Campaign donations may start as a trickle in the early stages, but Soud indicated early strategies can prove a candidate’s mettle once the race moves into the middle and latter stages.
“You’ve got to already demonstrate that you can raise money and put together a grass roots campaign. It’s very important,” she said.
Michael Weinstein, another declared mayoral candidate, may have less problem raising funds. The former Jacksonville Economic Development Commission executive director and current head of the Super Bowl Host Committee has a healthy network of business friends who would like to see him in office.
“There will be a lot of money going to the governor’s race, but there will certainly be a lot left over for the mayor’s race,” said Michael Munz, vice president of strategic communications at The Dalton Agency, a consulting firm for Weinstein’s campaign.
Munz said Weinstein’s prospects were very good in terms of raising funds and essentially discounted any challenges in accumulating contributions.
Hipps, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be as well-connected to deep pockets as Soud and Weinstein, which may force her to place more emphasis on a grass roots campaign to make up for funding shortcomings.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m below other candidates,” she said. “I’m not a candidate that has a lot of special interest backing.”
Hipps was relatively optimistic about the availability of contributions after the state elections.
“I think people in this city will have an interest in city government and have interest in the mayor’s race,” she said. “Although I think there is a finite amount of money to go around.”
Candidates for various City Council seats are starting to surface, too. While a successful City Council campaign won’t be as expensive as a mayoral bid, some hopefuls are starting early.
“We’re starting now trying to raise money,” said Rahman Johnson, who declared his candidacy for City Council District 10 to replace term-limited King Holzendorf. “You have gubernatorial, congressional, everybody is going to be clamoring — besides the fact that we’re in a recession. After Sept. 11, it has hurt, not only emotionally but financially, many people. So we have a lot to contend with. Some people have asked why we’re starting so early. Because I want to be able to get those $5 from Miss Jane, $10 from Mr. John.”
Popular opinion theorizes that it could take up to seven figures to run a competitive mayoral campaign. The only mayoral candidate who has been registered long enough to file a required quarterly campaign finance report is Hipps. As of Sept. 30, she had collected $12,175 for her campaign and spent $359.72. Updated finance reports are due Jan. 10.
“To be competitive, it could be a wide range,” said John Libby, president of American Public Dialog, a local political polling agency. “It could take anywhere from $500,000 to as much as several million dollars.”
One one hand, Libby said proactive campaigns will have an easier time collecting contributions.
“Candidates starting fund raising right now are doing the right thing,” he said. “If you have to raise $500,000 and you only raise $1,000 a day, you have 500 days to raise it.”
As the time period is compressed, the pressure to garner donations increases. The limit on individual and corporate campaign contributions is $500, which doesn’t go far in a million-dollar campaign.
On the other hand, Libby shrugged off candidates’ contribution concerns as an inability to raise funds.
“It may be the laments of the individuals having a hard time raising money,” he said, adding that most state congressional campaigns are being run uncontested by incumbents. “You hear this lament every time there is an election. But it is always tough raising money. You have
to ask a lot of people and shake a lot of hands and answer a lot
of questions.”