Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Local campaign spending released

16. January 2005 • Murph
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The Ann Arbor News today reports campaign spending by last November’s candidates for City of Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County races.

The stories include comment from Larry Kestenbaum on fundraising for County races:

Kestenbaum, who defeated Haines, the longtime incumbent, raised and spent nearly $25,000. About $13,000 of that came from money that he loaned to his campaign.

It’s fairly common for county candidates, particularly those running for county commissioner, clerk, treasurer or drain commissioner, to use their own money in campaign financing, Kestenbaum says.

“There’s not a tremendous amount of interest in those races. It’s not that easy to raise money for county races. It’s typical for candidates to put in significant amounts, like half of their campaign funds. That’s pretty typical,” Kestenbaum said.

It’s also typical, he said, for candidates who give large amounts to their own campaigns to call it a loan.

“And those loans are almost never paid back,” Kestenbaum said. “It’s put down as a device for some flexibility. Before they close campaign committees, they have to forgive the loan to themselves. That’s the way it goes.”



  1. That’s interesting. We actually did exceed the $1000. We raised about $1200, filed because we had exceeded the waiver, and then asked for a waiver for 2005 as we still haven’t dissolved the committee. I informed Tom, not that it’s any major story…
       —Marc R.    Jan. 17 '05 - 12:49AM    #