Staff Reports
Leon County Commission Chair Bill Proctor has held his District 1 seat since 2006, and he led his challengers Terrance Barber and Donna Pearl Cotterell in July fundraising.
The Proctor campaign raised $5,400 in July, including a $1,000 dollar contribution from Moore Bass Consulting. On July 27, Proctor spent over $6,000 for advertising. The mainstay said he has never felt better about his campaign.
“Totally pleased with my effort, totally pleased with what we’re communicating, outreach, mailers,” Proctor said.
“We have billboards, we will do radio unfolding, we will have robocalls. We’re even going to do a little text messaging and do everything we can to have voter contact and let the voters know how much we care and are concerned continuously for the issues of our district and the desire to continue to be represented for our district.”
Barber raised $2,438 in July, including a $1,000 donation from Realtors Political Action Committee, and the campaign spent $2,000 in July.
Barber said he has had a “phenomenal” grassroots campaign.
“The community in general has been very supportive,” Barber said. “We have a lot of volunteer work, we’re doing door knocking. May not be raising as much money as some of the other folks that are running right now, but we are definitely spreading the word just as much.”
Cotterell raised about $1,000 in July and spent most of her campaign’s money on flyers and yard signs.
“It’s a challenge,” Cotterell said about fundraising. “And I’ve had commitments from well-to-do donors who said, ‘I’m going to give you $250, I’m going to give you $500.’ And I feel like they’re waiting for my campaign to blow up, but it’s like, you can’t go up without fundraising. And if you’re holding on to money and waiting for that to happen it’s like a Catch-22.”
Cotterell said she feels good about her candidacy because most of the people she’s talked to in her district want change.
“Some of them are just tired of Bill Proctor’s grandstanding and then doing nothing to help people overall in District 1,” she said. “We know he’s got a long history and I respect that, but we just feel like we need change.”
