TRAVERSE CITY — Northern Michigan candidates in five races raised more than $780,000 in hopes of landing a job at the state capitol, and almost half of it — $344,000 — came from their own pockets.
Winners will have anywhere from two to eight years of fund-raising incumbency to try and erase the debts. Losers will have to swallow their losses, and the amounts can be staggering.
Republican State Rep. Darwin Booher, of Evart, a retired banker, loaned more to his campaign for the 11-county 35th Senate District seat than the four other candidates raised combined. The district includes Leelanau, Benzie, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee and Kalkaska counties.
Booher raised $143,838 of which $107,000 came from his own pocket. His closest competitor in the Republican primary, Wexford County Sheriff Gary Finstrom, raised $38,993, including $19,000 of his own money. The third Republican, Kevin Davis, raised $4,800, of which he chipped in $2,600. Among Democrats for the Senate seat, Roger Dunigan gave $6,400 of the $29,366 he raised. George Huffman filed a waiver, stating he intends to spend less than $1,000.
"It's a commitment we made, and I may lose it all," Booher said. "But I don't think you should be looked down on for spending your own savings to do service to the state."
Booher loaned $64,000 to his first campaign in 2004 and paid himself back less than $30,000.
He called his current investment "a gamble," because the voters don't care how much you spend. He pointed to Dick DeVos who spent $34.7 million on an unsuccessful bid for governor four years ago.
"It's true enough, money doesn't always win ... but there's a strong correlation to having a money advantage and winning an election," said Rich Robinson, executive director of the nonpartisan and nonprofit Michigan Campaign Finance Network.
Robinson said candidates don't need to match dollar for dollar, but there is a threshold level of spending a candidate needs to be viable and communicate with voters.
The spending patterns among candidate reports show those on the bottom spend their money on brochures, mailings, office supplies, phones, volunteer expenses and signs.
Incumbents and former office holders bolstered with contributions from political action committees cover the same basics and generally hire consultants and staff. They also use campaign funds for event tickets, meals, gifts, and even professional party planners and Christmas cards.
Former state Rep. Howard Walker, of Traverse City, is the top fund-raiser for northwest Michigan at $168,786, of which $55,020 he loaned to his campaign for the eight-county 37th Senate District. It includes Grand Traverse, Antrim, Charlevoix and Emmet counties. He also received $38,750 from political action committees. Walker, who worked in the oil and gas industry and owned his own land survey firm, lost about $73,000 from his three House campaigns.
"We tried to raise enough money to pay it off, but for whatever reason we didn't," Walker said.
He noted he's received wide support across the district for his race, even a contribution from Democrat Michael Estes. Walker's spent about $46,000 on television and radio ads, has a paid campaign manager and a Lansing consulting firm. He's also one of the few candidates to buy liability insurance for his campaign.
Walker's primary opponent in the Republican primary, Randy Bishop, raised $2,860 and spent all of it on signs and printing.
"This is a true David and Goliath story," Bishop said. "I guess we'll just find out if the people are wanting change or will allow the same old, same old political system to prevail."
Robinson said Tea Party candidates such as Bishop will help show if campaigning by Internet social-networking sites will work, but the conventional wisdom is you still need to spend money on traditional communications, such as mailings, signs and advertising.
101st House District
State Rep. Dan Scripps, D-Leland, raised $131,760, the second-highest total statewide among House of Representative candidates.
Scripps, who represents Leelanau, Benzie, Manistee and Mason counties in the 101st House District, will face the winner of the Republican primary between Ray Franz and John Arens.
"It's certainly not 2008, and I think it will be a close election in November," Scripps said. "It's going to be a target of both parties, and the money will follow."
Franz, who lost to Scripps in 2008 by almost 20 percentage points, still carries a $36,000 debt from that election. The retired business owner has raised $43,700 for 2010, of which $34,000 came out of his own pocket.
Arens, who previously joked he planned to spend about $12 on his campaign, will have to spend more. The Secretary of State office fined his campaign $300 for failure to file a statement of organization.
104th House District
State Rep. Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, raised less than half of Scripps' total despite a primary challenge from East Bay Township Supervisor Glen Lile for the 101st District that covers Grand Traverse and Kalkaska counties. Schmidt, however, raised more money in one day, $4,850, than Lile raised from all his donors, $1,500. Lile supplemented his low-budget campaign with $8,000 of his own money.
Schmidt raised $62,920 over two years with 30,475 from political action committees including Meijer Inc. and Spectrum Health. Not a single individual donation is below $100. He has not paid for professional staff, but picked up expenses for volunteers, spent $11,000 with Knorr Marketing, bought radio advertising, gave $7,000 to the House Republicans campaign committee and spent $2,944 on printing Christmas cards.
105th House District
The top two spenders in the wide-open 105th District race, Dennis Lennox, of Tobinabee, and Tim Boyko, of Charlevoix, have each pumped close to $40,000 of their own money into the race and raised less than $10,000 in contributions.
Boyko raised $48,000, including $42,500 of his own money with the rest of his contributions all coming from Charlevoix County residents.
Lennox put more than $42,000 into his campaign but took $8,000 back out, according to his amended campaign finance reports. He raised about $8,000 from approximately 100 other donors, he said.
"There is a significant amount of personal investment ... but running a campaign isn't inexpensive," Lennox said. "We're on radio and on television, did mailer after mailer, and knocked on 20,000 doors. It takes a lot of money to campaign across four counties for a year and a half."
Lennox and Boyko were the only candidates in the 105th who hired full-time campaign workers.
Triston Cole, of Manistee, raised about $21,000 in donations, including $3,400 from his own pocket; about $1,900 from family; $5,000 from the Michigan Farm Bureau, and a large number of individual donations.
Ken Glasser, an insurance agent from Gaylord, raised $14,450, including $1,500 from an insurance PAC, $1,000 from the Michigan Township Association and $1,000 of his own money.
Greg McMaster, of Kewadin, raised $14,800, including $1,400 of his own money, $1,000 from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and $1,700 from a half-dozen other Lansing PACs.
Barry Anderson, of Charlevoix, raised $3,500, including $2,000 of his own money. The district includes Antrim, Charlevoix, Otsego and most of Cheboygan counties.
