*Story updated 9/6/2018 at 8:49 a.m.*
According to mandatory campaign finance reports turned in to the Secretary of State’s office for the month of August, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox actually leads Governor Kay Ivey (R) in cash on hand coming at the end of the month.
The Walt Maddox campaign released a statement announcing their satisfaction with their August fundraising efforts.
“In August, Walt Maddox reported a total of $337,742, keeping the Maddox campaign on a competitive fundraising pace with Governor Ivey. Most exciting is that Walt’s total consisted of 789 individual contributors to Kay Ivey’s 82. Since June 5 Walt has received contributions from 1992 individuals to Ivey’s 403. People across the state are picking up on the energy and excitement of the Maddox campaign and choosing to invest in new leadership for Alabama. The people are seeing the clear choice in this election – new vs old, yesterday vs tomorrow, and change vs more of the same mediocrity and failure. Every day, more and more voters are agreeing with us that it’s time for a new Governor and they are providing us with the resources the Maddox campaign needs to finish strong and win the race. The total raised, when in kind contributions are included, was $476,458.”
According to the campaign filings with Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill’s (R) office, Governor Ivey entered August with $372,993.39 in cash on hand. Her campaign received cash contributions of $400,144.00 and in-kind contributions of just $700.00 in the month of August. Gov. Ivey reported expenditures of $435,173.57 plus line of credit expenditures of another $1,215.76 for an ending cash balance of $337,963.82. Ivey’s cash on hand was actually down $35,029.57 from her campaign’s beginning balance at the first of the month.
Mayor Maddox entered August with a beginning balance of $313,248.82 in cash on hand. His campaign reported that it received cash contributions of $338,159.00 and in-kind contributions of $23,068.58 plus receipts from other sources of $5,600.00 in the month of August. Even though Mayor Maddox was outraised by Gov. Ivey in August, he spent far less, reporting expenditures of only $180, 548.95 for an ending balance of $476,458.87. That is $138,495.05 more in cash on hand for Maddox than Gov. Ivey reported.
The Ivey campaign contacted the Alabama Political Reporter on Thursday and said that, “Governor Ivey actually raised $495,000 in August. In addition to the $400,000 reported on the monthly report, Governor Ivey’s campaign received an additional $95,000 in August which were reported early in the month in Major Contributor Reports.” The ending cash on hand balance however is correct.
While Maddox is having great success at fundraising, most Alabama Democrats have really been struggling to raise any money at all. To this point in the 2018 election cycle Alabama Republican candidates have raised $36,612,291 while Alabama Democratic Party candidates have raised only $9,461,612 combined. That is almost a four to one advantage for Republicans. Walt Maddox alone has raised $1,715,825.80 in this election cycle, over 18 percent of the total money raised by all Democratic candidates. The independents and third party candidates have managed to raise only $259,248 combined in this election cycle.
This does not include federal candidates.
There are 61 days left until the general election on November 6.
