Janelle Irwin Taylor
Jane Castor has raised more than $1 million in her campaign and affiliated political committee, she announced Thursday.
The campaign said its combined fundraising total as of Thursday afternoon was $1.08 million.
“These numbers reflect the tremendous enthusiasm that Jane’s candidacy has generated throughout the community,” said campaign manager Tim Wagner.
Not including David Straz, Castor has now raised more than any other campaign in the race combined. That is also assuming fundraising totals current through February 15 and doesn’t take into account funds those campaigns might have raised since, which have not yet been reported.
Straz has brought in more than $2.4 million, but almost all of that he contributed from his own personal wealth.
Castor’s updated fundraising totals are not reflected in public documents available on the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections website for her campaign or the Florida Division of Elections for her political committee, Tampa Strong.
As of the most recent documents available on those sites, Castor had raised a combined total of about $690,000. That includes $291,000 in her committee through the end of January and $378,000 in her campaign as of February 15.
Updated campaign finance reports for individual campaigns are due Friday by 11:59 p.m. Political committee reports for February won’t be available until the election. They’re due March 11. The election is March 5.
According to several polls and political insiders in Tampa, Castor is the runaway frontrunner in the seven-way race for Mayor. She would need to earn more than half the vote next Tuesday to avoid an April 23rd runoff, which is unlikely in such a crowded race.
That means Castor is likely to need more funding to carry her through a second one-on-one battle with whoever comes in second.
By most accounts, second place is favoring Straz whose ability to self-fund his own campaign is so far outmatched even by Castor’s fundraising prowess.
Voters can contribute only $1,000 to candidate’s campaigns, but that limit resets for the runoff and will allow Castor and whoever she faces to renew their fundraising push.
Early voting in the race is already underway and turnout so far is above 7 percent. Overall turnout is expected to exceed 22 percent, which was the turnout in 2011 when Mayor Bob Buckhorn was first elected.
