By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Tommy Battle’s campaign announced on Thursday that it had hit two major goals: Battle visited all 67 counties in Alabama, and he is the first candidate to report more than 1,000 contributions in the 2018 race for governor.
The Battle campaign reports 1,116 contributions and counting.
“I want to thank everyone that has contributed and helped our campaign reach this major fundraising milestone. This shows the kind of support we have across Alabama,” Battle said. “What makes this special is these are real Alabamians donating to our campaign. These are not Montgomery special interest groups. Not everyone running for governor can say that.”
Battle’s campaign points out that his contributions are nearly double the amount Gov. Kay Ivey has. The governor sits at just over 500 donations to her campaign, however, Ivey has quadruple the number of donations from political action committees.
“The numbers show that Alabama voters are on my side,” Battle said. “Montgomery leadership and special interest groups want to keep the Alabama State Capitol the same as it’s always been. I’m ready to lead this ship in a new direction.”
Battle is the Republican Mayor of Huntsville.
Battle’s campaign reported raising $134,761 in February in cash contributions and 3,297 in in-kind contributions in the month of February with expenditures of $73,064. Tommy Battle finished February with $1,302,959 in cash on hand.
Scott Dawson has $376,831 in cash on hand, Ivey $2,185,231.23, and state Sen. Bill Hightower, R-Mobile, has $653,214.
Ivey has raised $288,332 plus $2,698 in in-kind contributions in February and spent $220,339.
Dawson reported cash contributions a$57,765 and $2,642 in in-kind contributions with expenditures of $24,459.
Hightower reported cash contributions of $61,645 and expenditures of $40,411.
To this point there has been $7,427,216.53 raised in the governor’s race and $2,665,661.48 has been spent to this point.
The major party primaries are on June 5, 2018.
Republicans have won the last four gubernatorial elections and seven of the last eight.
