Candidates for Amarillo City Council Place One | Screenshot via Inspire Amarillo
On Friday, April 28th, candidates for local office filed their final reports ahead of the May 6th election. We’re now working our way through the races for City Council. Here is our summary of the finance reports from the six candidates running for Amarillo City Council Place One:
Lottery winner Dean Crump had raised the most money in the contest during the reporting period, listing $37,810 in contributions on his paperwork. Crump’s largest contributors were Chris Sharbauer and Jorcal Holdings, who each gave $5,000. (Crump is listed as the registered agent for Jorcal Holdings according to the Texas Secretary of State.) Rounding out Crump’s five largest donors were Mark Shaffer, who gave $3,000, Perry Williams, who gave $2,500, and Greg Graham, who gave $2,000. Crump spent a total of $45,429.50. His largest expense was $29,993 to SKP Creative for production of TV ads.
Firefighter Josh Craft raised the second largest amount of money, having reported $34,210 in contributions. Craft’s largest contribution was from the Amarillo Professional Firefighters Association PAC, who gave $25,000. Lisa Cloninger was the second largest donor, having given $5,000 to Craft. Coleton Camden gave $1,000, while Tom Roller, Heath Hodge, Greg Farber, and E. J. Ingram each gave $500. Craft’s largest expense was $47,417.87 paid to NoBox Creative, which accounted for most of his $47,636.02 in expenses.
Business owner Chip Hunt had the third highest amount of money coming into her campaign, with $14,400 reported on her report. $10,100 was in the form of campaign contributions, with her largest donor being Save Amarillo PAC, which gave $9,800. Jim Enix gave $200, while John Kletchka and Mike Tibbets each gave $50. The remaining amount came in the form of loans from Hunt’s company, GET Chip Hunt Properties. Hunt’s expenses totaled $12,591.82, with her largest expense being for $3,309.12 paid to Creative Cannon for production of a television ad.
Close behind Hunt was analyst Kelsey Richardson, who had $12,890 coming into her campaign, all of which came in the form of monetary contributions. Richardson’s largest donor was businessman Alex Fairly, who gave $10,000. The Teamsters Union gave $2,000. Rounding out Richardson’s top five donors were Ken Fowler, who gave $500, Kathy and Winston Curtis, who gave $250, and Connie Brown, who gave $100. Richardson’s expenses totaled $5,435.86, with her largest expense being $2,000 paid to Burkett Outdoor for billboards.
Notably, while Richardson was the only candidate to have received a direct contribution from Fairly, both the Amarillo Professional Firefighters Association PAC and Save Amarillo PAC, which gave to Craft and Hunt respectively, received donations from Fairly’s DealOn LLC in similar amounts to what the groups reported giving to the candidates.
Neither pastor Margie Gonzales and Amazon employee Sherie Wood reported any contributions, though both reported expenses. Wood reported $262 spent with Pinnacle Prints for signs, bumper stickers, flyers, and vehicle decals. Gonzales reported a $46.17 expense to MiGente for “meal for team @ candidate meet & greet.”
Ray White, who dropped out after the deadline to remove his name from the ballot, did not file a finance report.