Who’s donating to Birmingham’s mayoral candidates?

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Birmingham’s mayoral race is flush with cash. So far, six candidates have raised a combined $1.74 million and spent $1.4 million.

Incumbent Randall Woodfin accounts for around $1.5 million of those dollars, a fundraising total usually seen in congressional races.

WBRC 6 News Investigates combed through thousands of campaign contributions to show you who’s writing the checks and why it matters.

David Mowery is an Alabama-based consultant with decades of experience in politics and campaigns. He says money is a key part of any race, regardless of a candidate’s fundraising ideology.

“Money is important because you can’t do a lot without it,” Mowery explained. “There’s two ways to build name ID, one is through what you do everyday if you’re a coach like Tommy Tuberville or you buy it. You buy things like TV ads, mailers, texts, you have to pay your staff and all this gets more and more expensive every year.”

Mowery acknowledged there’s a surge of new candidates and fundraising money in local races this year in ways we haven’t historically seen. Birmingham’s race is one that attracts interest and dollars beyond the city limits.

“Birmingham is a large national/international city and so goes Birmingham, so goes the economic engine of the entire state. So it makes sense for people and groups to want to influence who the mayor of Birmingham is,” Mowery added.

We’ve broken down the largest campaign contributions by donation type for the three candidates who’ve raised the most money. Fundraising and spending totals for each candidate can be found below.

*This total only accounts for itemized cash contributions, not in-kind contributions.

The numbers in this report are based on fundraising totals filed with the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office at the time of publication. In order to file a campaign finance report a candidate must raise $1,000. Not all candidates who qualified for this race have filed state fundraising reports.

Business Donations

Randall Woodfin has raised $257,200 from businesses. The highest donors:

• Cardiac Solutions who sells defibrillators and has a contract with the city donated $25,000. 
• Two gaming entities also donated $25,000 each: the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and GLP, Gaming and Leisure Properties who owns dozens of large casinos. 
• City Trail View, LLC donated $20,000.
• Dunn Construction Company, who has a paving contract with the city donated $17,500.

The second highest fundraiser is Juandalynn Givan. She’s raised $31,200 from business donors. The highest donations include:

• $10,000 checks from Dream Staffing and KWK Outreach, connected to Serenity Chapel Funeral Home.
• Cleanspace Modular donated $5,000.  

Lashunda Scales raised $8,200 from businesses. The largest donations include:

• $2,500 checks from Boom Boom Entertainment and Heart One Health & Safety.
• $1,000 donation from Rather Recycling, LLC. 

More than a quarter million dollars flowing through this race is state PAC money.

Mowery says this isn’t the norm in general municipal elections.

“PACs have always been a part of the process,” Mowery said. “It allows people to speak with one voice, generally likeminded individuals aligned with an industry group or an ideological group.”

PAC Donations

PACs donated $261,650 to Woodfin. The largest contributions include:

• A combined $66,390 from North Alabama PAC.
• AVOTE, a PAC by the Alabama Education Association or AEA, donated $25,000.
• EDUPAC also donated $25,000.

Givan received $56,000 in PAC funds, the largest donations include:

• $25,000 contribution from AVOTE, AEA’s PAC.
• A combined $27,000 from A Better Birmingham for All Neighborhoods PAC.
• $4,000 from Alabama Positive PAC

Scales received a combined $3,500 from First Decade PAC and the CWA Local PAC.

In Alabama, there’s no cap on campaign contributions. In this race, individual donations add up to $1,744,559.43.

Individual Donations

Woodfin’s individual donors gave $991,421.57 to his campaign. Those writing the biggest checks:

• $25,000 from Brandon Loyd, President of Capstone Building Corp, which builds multifamily developments.
• $25,000 from Marcell Dareus, a former NFL player from Birmingham.
• $20,000 individual donations from George Barber, Jr., Edward Shaw, Sheree Acheson, Nancy Dunlap and Raymond Harbert.

Givan raised $95,950 in individual donations. The highest contributors:

• Wayman Powell donated a combined $31,500 dollars.
• Givan donated $23,000 dollars to her own campaign, which is not categorized as a loan on the campaign finance reports.
• Patricia Powell donated $13,000 dollars. 

Scales raised $24,693.83 in individual donations.

• Hazel Anthony gave a combined $5,852.
• Marion Collins and mike Scales both donated $3,250.

The final reporting deadline before the election is Monday, Aug. 25.

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