Hundreds of thousands of dollars raised, spent for Lubbock municipal election campaigns
The Lubbock municipal elections are getting expensive.
Six candidates combined have raised more than $215,000 and spent around $182,000 in an effort to become the city's top elected official, according to recent campaign finance reports. Groups have raised nearly as much to advocate for and against Proposition A, an initiative to decriminalize marijuana in the city.
Most candidates for municipal office and political action committees are required under state law to file reports 30 days and eight days before the election. Election Day is Saturday.
Steve Massengale, Lubbock's current District 4 councilman, leads the fundraising efforts by a wide margin, reporting nearly $152,000 in contributions between his 30- and eight-day reports. Massengale has out-fundraised the next leading candidate, Mark McBrayer, by a factor of five. His fundraising has surpassed that of all other candidates in all the municipal races combined, save for Proposition A.
McBrayer, the current District 3 councilman, has raised just more than $30,000 and has also lent his campaign some personal funds.
Massengale and McBrayer are on more equal footing when it comes to spending, however. Massengale leads McBrayer by only about $7,000 for campaign expenditures, spending about $71,000 compared to McBrayer's $64,000. Both candidates' expenditures are largely for television and radio advertising, printed promotional items and signage.
Adam Hernandez and Tony Renteria have each raised about $17,000 for their mayoral campaigns. Renteria has spent about $28,500, and Hernandez around $14,500.
Stephen Sanders reported only $52 in contributions and approximately $4,600 in expenditures. Kolton Bacon did not file a report, according to the city secretary's website.
Fundraising for the 2024 mayoral election is about on par with that of 2022, which saw Mayor Tray Payne elected by a wide margin. Payne was also the top fundraiser. Drew Landry, an assistant professor of government at South Plains College and a frequent Avalanche-Journal guest columnist, told the A-J more money generally equals more votes.
"The longstanding idea is the more money you have, the better you're going to be, because the more things you're going to be able to use for campaigning," Landry said. "The less money you have, you've got to prioritize a lot more."
"You don't want to be the person to run out of water first. You want your hose to be full of water."
Prop A marijuana vote pits grassroots against big money
Freedom Act Lubbock and Project Destiny Texas, the two main entities advocating for and against Proposition A, respectively, have collectively raised more than $175,000 in their efforts.
Project Destiny is responsible for the vast majority of that money, reporting $172,000 between its 30- and eight-day campaign finance reports. The PAC's 30-day report was filed 15 days after the deadline.
Freedom Act has raised just more than $5,300 in support of the proposition to adopt a city ordinance reducing the enforcement of certain marijuana offenses, according to its reports.
Project Destiny has spent more than $117,000 opposing the ordinance and has maintained a highly visible campaign against Prop A in recent months. In contrast, Freedom Act reported just under $7,000 in expendatures.
"Project Destiny has gotten a lot of money from a variety of people, and they've been able to fundraise very well," Landry said. "Freedom Act Lubbock has been more grassroots."
"The people behind Project Destiny have been on campaigns, they've been on winning campaigns, they have winning strategy, and they know exactly what to do," he continued, noting Project Destiny was the lead proponent of the Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance Lubbock voters passed in 2021. "The messaging is right where they want it.
"Freedom Act Lubbock yes, they are able to fundraise, but they have been much more boots-on-the-ground — let's get out and door-knock, let's use messaging systems, let's talk about things within our core group of people."
Polls are open on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. See Friday's A-J or visit lubbockonline.com for more Election Day info.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock campaign finance reports show hundreds of thousands raised
