Mayor John Dailey raises nearly $72K, his best showing yet, for re-election campaign

Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey saw his single biggest fundraising haul since filing for re-election last year, raking in a whopping $71,824.

Dailey’s contributions were more than double the amount raised by his challenger, Leon County Commissioner Kristin Dozier, who collected $29,226, according to campaign finance reports from Aug. 27 to Sept. 9.

The mayor upped his fundraising total to $342,734, the highest of all the local candidates, while Dozier’s total increased to $160,682. Dailey has spent $285,430 so far; Dozier has spent $121,349.

Dozier scored a close first-place finish over Dailey in the four-person Aug. 23 primary. Dailey, who’s running for a second term, and Dozier, who is retiring from her County Commission seat, will compete in the Nov. 8 general election.

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Contributors with ties to Florida State University continued their outpouring of financial support for Dailey, who was on the winning side of a contentious Blueprint vote to spend $27 million in sales tax dollars on Doak Campbell Stadium. Craig Mateer, an Orlando businessman and former FSU Board of Trustees member, and companies linked to him gave ten checks of $1,000.

Other big Dailey donors include TALCOR real-estate firms, which gave $6,000, and Arbor Properties firms, which gave $5,000. He also got checks from City Commissioner Curtis Richardson, former City Commissioner Gil Ziffer, former County Commissioner Bryan Desloge and former Circuit Judge Charles Dodson.

Dozier, who launched her mayoral campaign a year after Dailey, saw her second-biggest fundraising numbers since filing. Her donors include former City Commissioner Debbie Lightsey, former County Commissioner Bob Rackleff and former Wakulla County Commissioner Howard Kessler.

Dailey took in substantially more checks for $1,000, the legal max per person or entity, while Dozier continued to rely on smaller donors. Dailey got 54 $1,000 checks, which made up three-quarters of his overall take. Dozier collected 16 $1,000 checks and 31 checks for $27, a symbolically small amount popular among progressive donors.

In the District 2 County Commission race, Christian Caban raised $28,050, bringing his total to $115,857, while Hannah Crow collected $21,150, upping her total to $86,545.

In the at-large County Commission race, Commissioner Nick Maddox raised $18,901, bringing his total to $93,201. Josh Johnson raised $8,410, increasing his total to $39,904.

In the District 5 County Commission race, David O’Keefe, raised $11,495, bringing his total to $53,171. Paula DeBoles-Johnson collected $1,890, bringing her total to $43,971.

In School Board District 4, Laurie Lawson Cox raised $12,400, bringing her total to $81,394. Alex Stemle raised $3,325, increasing his total to $31,044.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.

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