Bang for your buck: Jacksonville mayoral candidate campaign spent $291 for each vote she won
City Council member LeAnna Cumber's fifth-place campaign for mayor spent $291 for each vote she received, compared to $12 in spending by Donna Deegan for each vote she won in the first election.
That huge spread shows that while raising money is essential to competing on the biggest stage of Jacksonville politics, it doesn't guarantee success at the ballot box.
Cumber’s campaign account and political committee spent a total of nearly $3.57 million, but she ended up netting 12,270 votes in the election Tuesday.
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JAX Chamber CEO Daniel Davis’s campaign account and political committee spent even more at $4.25 million. He finished second in the mayor’s race with 41,501 votes, sending him to a May run-off election against first-place finisher Deegan. That translated to about $102 in expenditures for each vote Davis won.
Deegan’s campaign account and political committee spent $793,554 and she won 66,180 votes, or $11.99 in spending for each vote.
City Council member Al Ferraro’s campaign account and political committee totaled $377,553 in spending and he captured 27,262 votes, or $13.85 in spending for each vote. Ferraro finished third in the mayor’s race.
Former state Sen. Audrey Gibson placed fourth with 14,439 votes. Her campaign account and a political committee spent $117,292, equating to $8.12 per vote she won.
The City Council races had two big-spending campaigns that didn’t pay off on election night.
John Phillips’ campaign spent $343,291 in his race for the District 7 seat. He finished third with 2,705 votes, or almost $127 in spending for each vote.
Jack Meeks’ campaign spent $346,906 as he finished in fifth place in the City Council at-large group five race. Meeks, who ran as a non-party affiliated candidate, won 8,624 votes in the citywide contest, or about $40 of spending for each vote.
Both Phillips and Meeks sunk their own money into their campaigns. Phillips gave $326,000 in contributions and loans. Meeks contributed $260,000.
The figures for campaign spending are based on filings with the Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office through March 17 for campaign accounts and through Feb. 28 for political committees registered with the state Division of Elections.
The political committee supporting Ferraro is registered locally but the other political committees are at the state level, so the figures do not capture what they shelled out in March leading up to Election Day.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville mayor race had wide spread in campaign spending
