See who’s raising, spending the most money in the Sedgwick County Commission races

Republicans running for Sedgwick County Commission seats outraised and outspent their Democratic counterparts in the months before an election that will determine which party holds a majority on the five-member board.

The three Republicans also garnered more than 30 times as much in contributions from businesses and corporations between July 22 and Oct. 27, new campaign finance filings with the county election office show.

District 4 challenger Ryan Baty raised and spent the most of any candidate, bringing in $54,180 and expending $79,346 on the campaign trail. His opponent, Democratic incumbent Lacey Cruse, raised $20,434 and spent $34,718.

District 1 incumbent Pete Meitzner raised the second most — $47,125 — and spent $50,360. His Democratic challenger, Kelli Grant, brought in $13,551 and forked out $21,061.

In District 5, Republican incumbent Jim Howell raised $19,490 and spent $24,642 compared with John McIntosh’s $10,745 in contributions and $12,667 spent on campaign expenses in the last three months.

Overall, Republicans received $36,550 in corporate donations compared with Democrats’ $1,050. Baty and Meitzner led the way with $16,050 and $13,500, respectively. Baty’s opponent, Cruse, received the least corporate money — a single $150 contribution from Johnston Law Offices in Kechi.

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Two car dealerships, Eddy’s Toyota and Subaru of Wichita, gave the maximum $500 donation to all three Republican candidates. Companies associated with real estate developers appear to have given the most money to county commission hopefuls.

Baty received a $250 contribution in October from Word of Life Ministries and Schools, a Wichita nonprofit. Under the Internal Revenue Code, nonprofits are prohibited from making political contributions.

Word of Life did not return a phone call Thursday. Ben Davis, Baty’s campaign manager, said the contribution was a mistkae and that Baty’s campaign refunded it Thursday after becoming made aware of the issue.

Mark Skoglund, executive director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, said there are rarely serious consequences for candidates who receive or organizations that give improper political contributions.

“We just have the campaign refund the contribution and consider that a full resolution of the issue,” Skogland said in an email. “If we thought an improper contribution scenario were intentional or severe, we may take other action, but that would be rare.”

Three limited liability companies that share an address with the Mattress Hub’s corporate office — TMH LLC, TMH Master LLC and Quilled LLC — gave $500 each to Baty, who founded the mattress company.

Baty also received $500 contributions from Excursions Limited LLC, Hoosier Racing Tire and Out of the Box Investments LLC, which all share an address on West Kellogg.

Meitzner received contributions from five limited liability companies that share the address of a corporate suite on east Central where several different insurance agencies do business.

Meitzner and Howell both received $2,000 from political action committees. Cruse and Baty each scored $1,000 from PACs and Grant and McIntosh were gifted $850 and $750, respectively.

The Sedgwick County Democratic Women PAC gave Cruse $500 and Grant and McIntosh $250 each. The Sedgwick County Grassroots Democrats PAC also made $500 contributions to both Cruse and Grant.

The Wichita Realtors PAC gave all three Republican candidates $500, and the Wichita Regional Chamber PAC gave the same amount to Meitzner and Howell.

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The two incumbent Republicans both received additional $500 donations from political action committees associated with Spirit Aerosystems and Textron Aviation, Wichita’s two largest employers.

Campaign finance reports detailing contributions and expenditures for the final days of the election — Oct. 28 through Nov. 8 — must be filed with the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission by Jan. 10.