Find out who’s raising, spending the most money in Wichita’s 2023 mayoral election

A record amount of campaign cash is pouring into the Wichita mayoral primary election to challenge incumbent Mayor Brandon Whipple.

First-time candidate Lily Wu raised a record amount of donations from Jan. 1 to July 20, more than doubling the previous pre-primary record set by former Mayor Jeff Longwell in 2019. Republican Bryan Frye, a two-term City Council member, also raised more money than Longwell.

Wu raised twice as much money as Frye and six times as much as Whipple in 2023.

With the Aug. 1 primary just over a week away, Monday was the deadline for Wichita-area candidates to file reports detailing how much money they had raised and spent so far in 2023.

By Tuesday morning, six of nine Wichita mayoral hopefuls’ reports had been posted on the Sedgwick County Election Office website: Wu, Frye, Whipple, Celeste Racette, Jared Cerullo and Julie Rose Stroud.

Wu raised $207,202 and spent $119,126. Frye raised $92,721 and spent $66,783. Whipple raised $34,712 and spent $27,650.

Wu, a former local television reporter and registered Libertarian, received $159,852 in individual contributions and $46,850 in corporate donations — most of them the maximum legal amount of $500. She is also being promoted by Charles Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group that is funding campaign mailers and video ads for Wu. Outside spending is not included in the reports candidates were required to file.

Her fundraising includes numerous instances of bundling, a campaign finance workaround where donors give the maximum contribution from multiple companies registered to the same address.

Many of those businesses are owned by prominent Wichita business people who also gave as individuals, including developers Johnny Stevens, Steve Barrett and Colby Sandlian along with oil business mogul Gerald O’Shaunessy. Others, such as Martin and Ronald Cornejo, gave the maximum amount through multiple LLCs but did not attach their names to their donations.

Frye, who in 2015 voted against allowing LLCs and PACs to give directly to city candidates, accepted $28,070 from corporations and maximum $500 contributions from the Wichita Chamber PAC and GarverUSA PAC, a political committee for the engineering firm hired by the city to oversee the city’s new water treatment facility project.

Some of those corporate donations included bundles, such as maximum contributions from Joseph Hemmelgarn as an individual and through his companies Premier Food Service and The Humidor. Developer Will Hayes and his wife Caroline each gave $500, as did a living trust and two companies tied to the couple. Construction executive Craig Nelson gave $500 in his own name as well as through two companies.

Of the $34,712 that Whipple raised, $2,150 came from corporations, including $250 from the Northern Flyer Alliance, a company that advocates for the expansion of intercity passenger rail service between Fort Worth and Kansas City through Oklahoma City and Wichita.

Whipple, a Democrat, also received $2,250 from unions, including $250 from the local Machinist union, $500 from the national electrical workers union and another $500 from a Missouri-based heat and frost insulators union.

Racette, a registered independent and former fraud investigator who founded Save Century II, garnered $38,845 in donations and spent nearly as much — $34,538. She received $2,500 in corporate money.

Racette, who has been a critic of bundling in the past, accepted maximum donations from her husband, attorney Eric Bruce, along with two entities under his control — Bruce & Lehman and Trocadero, LLC. She also accepted multiple maximum donations by LLCs owned by married couple Arthur Davis and Robin Van Huss, who did not give as individuals but instead through three different LLCs.

Republican former City Council member Jared Cerullo, who vowed not to fundraise at the outset of the campaign, reported $0 in contributions between January and July. He did, however, spend more than $5,000 of his own money, reporting a deficit of $5,372 as his campaign balance.

Julie Rose Stroud, an environmental health specialist, self-funded her campaign with $226 but did not spend any of it during the reporting period.

Campaign finance reports for candidates Shelia Davis, Anthony Gallardo and Tom Kane were not yet available on the county election office site.

Wu is best-positioned for last-minute spending ahead of the primary, reporting $88,076 cash on hand. Whipple, who had $20,000 in his coffers from his last run, still has $27,794 cash on hand. Frye reported $25,938 in remaining funds and Racette has $4,357.