Interesting financial info from the last council election
Everything brought together for your perusal
On October 29th I wrote Let's talk money and the council candidates where I took a dive into the 2023 city council election from a contribution and expenditure angle.
Council candidates are required to file reports regarding their campaign finances on Oct 17, Nov 3, and Dec 12. You can find them on the city’s elections page. I have looked at these reports over the years because as boring as it sounds you can sometimes find interesting information. In that post, I gave suggestions about what to look for and how you might interpret what you see.
Below are details from the candidates reports for Nov 3rd and Dec 12th. But I also put together a compilation of all three reports to give you an election overview of each candidates contributions and how they spent that money. Incumbents Barnes and Mangat were reelected, and Fridland and Gallegos join them on the council.
Mayor JD Mangat’s contributions and expenditures caught my eye and it took a bit of extra work to pull together what I was seeing. Incumbents generally get reelected, I can only recall three that did not, going back to when I first started watching in the 1990’s.
The mayor’s reports show 72 contributions totaling $13,539. This is a huge amount of money for a Lafayette council campaign. 26 of those contributions were from folks who live in Lafayette and totaled $2,280. One contribution of $200 is worthy of note as it’s from Marcus Pachner of the Pachner Company, who is paid by members of the development community to represent them in Lafayette. More details on that below.
A couple of standouts for expenditures, the reports show payments totaling $2,100 for a campaign manager, something I have not seen done in the past. Candidates usually run their own campaigns with a friend or family member sometimes taking on the role of unpaid manager but even that is rare.
The other standout from the December expenditure report is the $3,000 spent to rent Bounce Empire for election night.
Campaign contributions and expenditures all reports combined
Tim Barnes - incumbent running for reelection (elected to 4 year term with 6392 votes) - began with $268.88 on hand - contributed $339.86 to his campaign, received $429.73 in contributions, spending $789.82 for printing and a website.
David Fridland (elected to a 4 year term with 6062 votes) - self funded his campaign showing no contributions, spending $2,005.05 for printing, buttons, signs, a website and local advertising.
Crystal Gallegos (elected to a 2 year term with 3544 votes) - self funded her campaign showing no contributions, spending $154.46 for signs.
JD Mangat - incumbent running for reelection- (elected to a 4 year term with 7894 votes) - began with $612.97 on hand, contributed $50 to his campaign, received $2,280 in contributions from Lafayette residents, $11,259 in contributions from non-Lafayette residents, $200 in-kind donation for flyer and door hanger design and one for $528 reported as food and drinks, spent $7,321 for flyers, mailing, signs, $2,100 to Matthew Miranda as a campaign manager, $89.32 for a volunteer lunch, $3,000 for rental of Bounce Empire for election night.
Gala Orba - no contributions or expenditures for the entire campaign.
Eric Ryant - self funded his campaign showing no contributions, spending $2,220.91 for printing, buttons, a website and local advertising.
John Watson - contributed $200 to his campaign, received 2 contributions totaling $125 and spent $174.49 for “signs for office”.
City Council Candidates Contributions and Expenditures for the November 3rd, 2023 filing
Tim Barnes
Funds on hand at the beginning $0
Funds on hand at the end $233.06
Total contributions from 3 Lafayette residents: $244.46
Total spending: $11.40
Lafayette Library: printing
Wix: domain name
David Fridland
Personal expenditures only, no contributions listed
$695 for advertising
Crystal Gallegos
Zero contributions and expenditures
JD Mangat
Funds on hand at the beginning: $6,767.42
Funds on hand at the end: $4,063.88
Total monetary contributions: $550
$100 was from a Lafayette resident
$200 was from Marcus Pachner, Denver, owner of the Pachner Company. The Pachner Company is a member of the development community. A familiar name in Lafayette because Marcus represents developers via community outreach, and presentations at city meetings. He represented Boulder County Housing Authority for the Willoughby Corner project. He also represented Kensington Development Partners who presented a plan for the Tebo Property at the corner of 287 and Arapahoe. I have reported on this project since it began.
Total Expenditures: $3,253.54
Morrell Printing - flyers, mailing and postage
Gala Orba
No contributions or expenditures
Eric Ryant
No contributions or expenditures
John Watson
Funds on hand at the beginning $151.50
Funds on hand at the end $151.50
City Council Candidates Contributions and Expenditures for the December 12th, 2023 filing
Tim Barnes
Funds on hand at the beginning $520.19
Funds on hand at the end $520.19
There is a $287.13 discrepancy in the funds on hand at the end of the October report and the beginning of the November report although no contributions are noted.
David Fridland
No contributions or expenditures
Crystal Gallegos
No contributions or expenditures
JD Mangat
Funds on hand at the beginning: $4,063.88
Funds on hand at the end: $785.46
$50 contribution Lafayette resident
Total monetary contributions: $50
Total expenditures $3,328.46
$3,000 - Bounce Empire - facility reservation for election night
$300 - Matthew Miranda - campaign manager - November payment
$28.42 - Act Blue - online payment fees
Gala Orba
No contributions or expenditures
Eric Ryant
No contributions or expenditures
John Watson
No contributions or expenditures
I always read Karen’s analysis and I highly respect her opinions. But I cannot agree with her criticism of Mayor Mangat for hiring a Campaign Manager. In addition to serving as our Mayor (that alone is a huge job), Mangat is a full time 8th grade teacher and devotes countless hours to youth activities in our community. I would much rather he spend his time educating and helping the youth in our community, rather than ordering yard signs and flyers!
Fantastic summary Karen. Thank you for taking the time to do this. I am spreading the word so other residents can benefit from your summaries.