Kevin Gillogly has compiled a summary chart of all mayoral campaign finance filings exclusively for Maryland Scramble. I’ll focus on the top six below, and finish with an assessment of where things stand. To be clear, the opinions are mine, not Kevin’s or anyone else’s.
Receipts (exclusive of loans): Pugh $648,000, Dixon $423,000, Embry $415,000, Warnock $361,000, Mosby $320,000, Stokes $180,000
Expenditures (lowest to highest): Embry $22,000, Pugh $98,000, Mosby $118,000, Stokes $132,000, Dixon $181,000, Warnock $384,000
Cash on hand: Warnock $927,000, Pugh $664,000, Embry $394,000, Dixon $320,000, Mosby $203,000, Stokes $158,000
Winners:
Catherine Pugh. Most money raised. Second in lowest expenditures. Second in cash on hand. She’s succeeded at fundraising. Now she has to spend some to move up in the polls.
Elizabeth Embry. Raised an eye-popping sum on a shoestring. Now what does she do with all that money to move up from 5%?
Ups and Downs:
David Warnock. The $361,000 looked better before three candidates topped it. The loan is a show of commitment but it will raise suspicions. The ads are pretty, but will make people nuts if they’re run too much. And now there’s another serious white candidate in the race with a wad of cash too.
Sheila Dixon. The amount raised was good, but the burn rate was very high. She leads in the polls, but she has a ceiling of potential support of probably around 30% due to her negatives. She has to hope that as many candidates stay in the race and fracture the other 70% to the maximum extent possible.
Meh:
Nick Mosby. Finished fifth out of six in fundraising while sitting at 7%. Spent a lot to get it. Has high name recognition based on his wife Marilyn Mosby being the State’s Attorney, but that’s turned out to be awould have liked, and any hit to her favorability doesn’t help Nick, either. Young and ambitious, this may not be Nick Mosby’s year.
Carl Stokes: raised the least, spent the second most. Bad combination. The only advantage he has over Mosby is polling: 14% to Mosby’s 7%. With Dixon ahead of him and Embry and Warnock having strong financial prospects, the only likely direction for Stokes is down. Who benefits from him staying in? And if he leaves? I don’t purport to know the answers! but these are the questions he should be asking, because it doesn’t seem likely that he’s going to be the next mayor.