Anchorage mayoral candidate Andrew Halcro has recently added $85,000 of his own money to the $5,200 he previously contributed to his campaign ahead of the April 7 city election, a huge sum that gets him closer to rival Dan Coffey in terms of overall fundraising totals, campaign disclosure reports filed Monday show.
But Coffey, who has been running for 17 months, remains by far the biggest fundraiser and spender in the campaign. Between Feb. 2 and March 6, Coffey reported spending about $124,394, which his campaign consultant said was mostly for radio advertising and mailers.
Coffey has received contributions from more than 660 individual donors, his campaign said, as well as from a political action committee formed by Enstar employees. He also reported receiving $500 from Anchorage Hospitality Retailers.
In his latest report to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, Coffey reported that he still has about $53,329 cash on hand. He has raised about $275,264 since he began his campaign in October 2013.
Democrat Ethan Berkowitz raised about $61,700 since entering the race Feb. 10, his Monday filing shows. He received donations from about 350 individuals, as well as four union-affiliated political action committees.
Berkowitz did not personally contribute to his campaign, though his wife, Mara Kimmel, donated $500. He reported expenditures of about $17,886.
The 30-day report of a fourth major candidate, Anchorage Assembly member Amy Demboski, was not available Monday evening. Candidates had until midnight Monday to file the reports.
In her last filing, Demboski had raised about $55,352, including about $32,428 of her own money.
Halcro, a longtime executive in his family's successful Avis rental car franchise, said he decided to use money from his savings after surveying the fundraising landscape over the past month. He said he found that much of the financial support had been locked up by Coffey.
Halcro's filings show he wrote two checks to his campaign in the last month, one on Feb. 9 for $10,000 and one Thursday for $75,000. He contributed $5,196 of his own money in the previous filing period.
"We all knew nobody was going to ever catch up with Dan Coffey on fundraising," Halcro said in a phone interview. "But then again, he'll probably need every dime of that."
Besides his personal finances, Halcro raised about $13,502 from about 70 donors since starting his campaign in late January, the report shows. He had raised a total of $104,288 in his campaign and spent about $21,740 as of Friday.
Marc Hellenthal, the political consultant working for Coffey, said he sees the race as a contest between Republicans to the runoff.
"It's a race to see who runs against Berkowitz," Hellenthal said.
If no candidate receives at least 45 percent of the vote, the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff May 5.
An earlier version of this story reported that Coffey's report showed he received $500 from the Anchorage Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association. The group is now known as Anchorage Hospitality Retailers, according to the Alaska Public Offices Commission.