Amarillo city candidates disclose period 3 contributions

Campaign finance reports have been made public by the city of Amarillo ahead of the upcoming May 6 city elections for period 3 of the candidate campaign filings, which are due 30 days prior to the election.

In the Amarillo mayor’s race, current Place 1 Councilmember Cole Stanley has raised more money for his campaign than any other candidate in the election so far, with $52,934 in the campaign period ending April 6. Including online donations, Stanley had more than 82 unique donors, with the largest being a $10,000 donation from Trent and Joella Morgan of Amarillo. He also received $5,000 a piece from Dipakkumar Patel and Lynn Morgan of Amarillo.

Other substantial donations to his campaign online were from Melissa Stanley with $3,000 and Marco Gillezeau with $2,500, according to the report filed with the city.

Fellow council member and mayoral opponent Freda Powell from Place 2 claimed $20,083 in campaign contributions from 92 different donors. Her largest donor was Amy Taylor of Amarillo with $1,500. She had three donations of $1,000 from Don and Tawanna Powell, Bev and Bill Harris and Patricia Person, all from Amarillo. Most of Powell’s contributions were made of donations of $250 or less.

Among the other four mayoral candidates, Don Collins and Sam Burnett both reported less than $1,000 in political contributions. Collins claimed $610, with his largest donation being $250 from Lorraine Hysmith of Amarillo. Burnett had one anonymous donation of $183.86. Jeffrey McGunegle and Tonya Winston had no campaign donations listed.

In the most contested race with seven candidates, city council Place 1 had Dean Crump leading all those running with $37,275 in reported donations. His largest donation of $5,000 was from Kelvin and Cindy Allen of Canyon. Matt Griffith of Amarillo donated $2,500, with Milton and Hilda Giron of Amarillo donating $1,500. He had nine donations of $1,000 from various donors, with 69 donors in total contributing to his campaign.

With $23,620 in total campaign contributions was Josh Craft. He had 30 different donors, with his largest being Jessica Brazile of Midland with $5,000. Craft also donated $4,995 of his own money to his campaign, with the rest of his 28 donations being $500 or less.

Kelsey Richardson claimed $5,502 in donations, with the Vault Legacy of Amarillo donating $3,000 and Doug Walterschied of Amarillo donating $1,000. She had 12 total donations.

Gail Hunt and Margie Gonzales both claimed less than $1,000 in donations. Hunt had seven different donors totaling $925, and Gonzales listed one donor contribution of $250. Sherie Wood listed $900 in campaign expenditures for yard signs, stickers and other merchandise but no donations. Ray White, who has left the race but is still on the ballot, filed no report.

In the Councilmember Place 2 race, Don Tipps was the only candidate that listed any campaign donations raised, with $20,405. He was by far his largest donor, with a listed contribution of $10,000 to his own campaign. Tipps had 28 different donors listed, with four donations of $1,000. Also listed was a contribution of a non-monetary donation of $1,750 from the Professional Firefighters Association for push cards and polling.

The Place 3 councilmember race has Tom Scherlen receiving the second-highest number of contributions in any citywide race this year. Scherlen has raised $40,051 from 44 donors, including $4,500 of in-kind donations from Burkett Advertising, which has provided three billboards to his campaign. Of all candidates in the upcoming election, Scherlen has by far the largest single contribution to his campaign of $25,000 from Dealon LLC, a corporation that is listed as a domestic limited liability company with the Texas Secretary of State. According to Alex Fairly this is his holding company and is used in larger donations such as this one.

Three other significant donations for Scherlen were $2,500 from Dipakkumar Patel of Amarillo, $2,000 from the Amarillo Professional Firefighters Association political action committee and $2,000 from Craig Gualtiere, owner of Roasters Coffee and Tea Company.

Coming remarkably close to Scherlen with $38,483 in campaign donations, Katt Massey had the greatest number of unique donors in the city elections with 142. Her largest donor was the Amarillo Association of Realtors with $4,000. Massey had seven donations of $1,000 for her campaign. John Adair listed no political contributions.

Leading place 4 donations was Les Simpson, with $36,687 in political contributions and his largest donor being listed as the Amarillo Association of Realtors with $4,000. He also received a $2,500 donation each from Alex Fairly and Jerry Hodge. Overall, Simpson had 83 different donors.

Claudette Smith had $27,335 listed in political donations to her campaign, according to the candidate filing. Her largest donation was a non-monetary in-kind donation of $3,500 for listed media expenses toward the campaign from Rick Parsley of Amarillo. Another unspecified nonmonetary expense of $2,600 was listed by Nick Palmeri of Amarillo. Alex Deanda was listed as contributing $2,500 in labor for her campaign. Elizabeth Grigg contributed $1,980 in labor toward Smith’s campaign.

Hobert “Gunny Brown” listed $3,600 in political contributions, with his largest donor being Teamsters Local Union 577 with $2,500. Overall, he had seven unique donors.

The next campaign donation filing period is eight days before the election on April 28. For complete filing information, go to https://www.amarillo.gov/departments/city-manager/city-secretary/financial-reports .

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo releases city candidates' campaign finance reports