Whitmore, DiSabatino hold on to large spending leads

Bradenton Herald reporter Tim Wolfrum reports on the latest campaign finance reports in the races for two seats on the Manatee County Commission:

The elections office also released the latest campaign finance reports for county races Monday.

As expected, the Republican candidates in the county commission races extended their huge spending leads over their Democratic counterparts.

In the District 4 race, Republican Robin DiSabatino spent $12,013.56 during the period from Sept. 25 to Oct. 8. That’s more than three times as much as Democrat Roger Galle ($3,950.16) has spent on his entire campaign.

Almost half of DiSabatino’s recent spending, $5,793.48, went to Political Ink, a direct-mail company out of Alexandria, Va. Overall, DiSabatino has spent $107,445.99 on the primary and general election. Galle was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

In the countywide District 6 race, incumbent Carol Whitmore, the Republican, spent $16,060.36 during the most recent two-week period, almost nine times what Democrat Sundae Knight ($1,792.54) has spent on her entire campaign.

Unfortunately for Whitmore, $2,500 of her expenditures came from donation refunds she didn’t have to make. Whitmore made five refunds of $500 each to donors who had supported her in the primary as well as the general election. The maximum donation is $500.

“Since I didn’t have an opponent in my primary, I was told by my CPA (certified public accountant) that I couldn’t take duplicate donations after the primary. That was wrong,” Whitmore said after checking with Sweat’s office.

Whitmore also spent a considerable amount, $11,261.57, with Political Ink since Sept. 25. She has spent $65,813.88 to date.

 Read the campaign finance reports, including lists of donors, here.