As of early August, candidates in this fall’s elections for Minneapolis City Council had raised a grand total of $1.1 million, in response to a MinnPost evaluation of campaign finance records.
As of mid-September, St. Paul City Council candidates had spent greater than $916,000 on their runs – and collectively still had a quarter-million dollars readily available to spend.
These totals are all several weeks old now as candidates don’t report contributions in real-time. But with the subsequent campaign finance update not due out until late October, these totals can assist contextualize the news stories and messaging voters are likely to see from the campaign.
Just a few caveats: The charts below only show candidates who’ve reported raising or spending money. We have now a complete list of candidates in each the Minneapolis and St. Paul council races, including those that haven’t yet filed campaign finance disclosures.
Some candidates – especially the incumbents – have been accruing campaign money for months, if not greater than a 12 months now. But other candidates only filed for office in early August, and it might be a couple of more weeks before the general public can have a have a look at their campaigns’ funds.