CenterPoint appears in two of the three Evansville mayoral candidates' finance reports

Sarah Loesch, Evansville Courier & Press
Updated ·4 min read

EVANSVILLE — The race for campaign cash among the city's three mayoral candidates had a clear winner this year, with the two big-party candidates both accepting large amounts of corporate dollars.

Republican Natalie Rascher nearly doubled the donations received by Democrat Stephanie Terry and brought in around 16 times more than Libertarian Michael Daugherty.

For the pre-election period of April 8 to Oct. 13, Rascher brought in $631,332.96 in contributions. This included money from fixtures in Mayor Lloyd Winnecke's administration and the president and chief operating officer of CenterPoint Energy.

Terry brought in $326,872.20 during the same period, also accepting money from CenterPoint's Political Action Committee. Terry also has a large amount of donations coming from ActBlue. an online fundraising platform for Democratic candidates, progressive organizations and nonprofits. Terry brought in $78,551 in ActBlue contributions.

Daugherty raised $37,607.22 nearly all of it through self-funding which has left his campaign in debt.

CenterPoint Energy contributions

Throughout the campaign, complaints about CenterPoint Energy rates have been a mainstay at candidate forums. Utility costs − CenterPoint customers pay the highest electric bills in the state − have many constituents asking what a candidate will do for them in that arena.

All three have answered that multiple times, in interviews with the Courier & Press and in public forums. All say they would advocate for residents, but with varying definitions of the word "advocate."

Daugherty has said he would not have any money from CenterPoint or other political action committees on his campaign finance report, while his opponents would.

Michael Daugherty, Libertarian candidate for Evansville mayor
Michael Daugherty, Libertarian candidate for Evansville mayor

Rascher and Terry never disputed that, and their reports do show contributions from the utility and its leadership.

Rascher accepted $1,000 on Aug. 25 and $1,305.97 on Aug. 22 from CenterPoint's PAC. The $1,305.97 was noted as an in-kind contribution for event expenses.

There are also two occasions, April 19 and Aug. 8, when Jason Wells, the COO and president of CenterPoint, contributed $500 and $520.51 to Rascher. Christopher Foster, CenterPoint's executive vice president and CFO, also contributed $500.

Terry has two instances where CenterPoint shows up in her report, once from the PAC on Aug. 31 for a total of $1,000 and once as an "in-kind" contribution of $1,016.69 from the corporation itself.

The report lists the the "in-kind" expenditure as being for an event expense.

Political Action Committee donors

While appearing on both reports, CenterPoint Energy was not the largest PAC donor to Rascher or Terry.

Natalie Rascher, Republican candidate for Evansville mayor
Natalie Rascher, Republican candidate for Evansville mayor

Rascher's single largest PAC contribution was from the local Evansville Future PAC at $23,000. The same PAC paid for anti-Cheryl Musgrave advertising during the primary. The PAC was formed in 2018 by current Deputy Mayor and Interim Parks Director Steve Schaefer. He was chair until 2020, when it was passed to Hobart Scales. In February, the chair became Dylan Krohn.

Multiple PACs vied for the second place spot, with two construction industry names tying for the title.

Commonwealth Engineers PAC donated $15,000 during the six-month period, as did DPBG, the PAC for American Structurepoint.

First Group Engineering, Inc., through its For Better Infrastructure Political Action Committee, comes in third at $10,150.

$10,000 donors to Rascher:

  • CD PAC: connected NFP, an Indianapolis-based insurance brokerage firm.

  • HNTB PAC: connected to HNTB Corporation, a Missouri-based engineering firm.

$5,000 donors to Rascher:

  • Arcadias U.S. Inc. PAC: connected to Arcadias North America, an engineering firm in Colorado.

  • ICE PAC: Ice Miller Law in Indianapolis.

  • Indiana Realtors PAC

  • Local 215 Drive Political Fund

  • Old National Bank PAC ($5,600)

  • SIBA PAC - Southern Indiana Builders Association

Terry's largest PAC contribution this reporting period came from the Local 215 Drive Political Fund, which also donated to Rascher. Terry received $12,500 compared to Rascher's $5,000.

Stephanie Terry, Democratic candidate for Evansville mayor
Stephanie Terry, Democratic candidate for Evansville mayor

$10,000 donors to Terry:

  • Local 104 PAC

$5,000 donors to Terry:

  • United Steel Workers Local 104 PAC

  • ICE PAC ($5,500)

Daugherty reported no contributions from PACs.

Who spent the most this period?

Aside from raising the most, Rascher also spent the most this period. From April 8 to Oct. 13 she spent $551,980.10.

Terry spent $225,576.44 and Daugherty spent $29,332.56.

Are any of the campaigns in debt?

Daugherty's campaign owes $34,443.80.

He owes $2,000 to the City County Observer for advertising and $32,443.80 to himself.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: CenterPoint found in two Evansville mayoral candidates' contributions