In Baton Rouge, there are less than 90 days until the 2024 mayoral election, and although no votes have been cast yet, the campaign has already proven historic for one reason: money.
So far, more than $1.3 million has been donated to the candidates.
This is the highest single donation amount for a mayoral election in Baton Rouge at this time in the last 25 years – and the result is not particularly close.
The total amount of campaign money raised so far this election cycle exceeds the $261,291 raised by the three leading candidates at the same point in the 2020 race and is nearly double the $671,047 raised by the three leading candidates in 2016.
The two Democrats in the 2024 presidential race – incumbent Mayor Sharon Weston Broome and former state Rep. Ted James – account for almost all of the $1,333,569 raised 90 days before Nov. 5.
Since January 1, James has raised $810,139 while Broome has raised $515,960.
There are several reasons why enormous sums have already been invested in the election campaign, says Baton Rouge-based political scientist John Couvillon.
“Number 1: Broome has most likely spent the last four years building up her war chest,” he said, explaining that the incumbent built up a large number of donors during her last term. “Number 2: Ted James started relatively early and has built up a pretty sizable war chest as well.”
Ted James hugs a supporter during a breakfast at the Jolie Pearl Oyster Bar on Wednesday, July 17, 2024.
When James announced his candidacy on February 29, he began fundraising early. A month later, his campaign had raised more than $150,000.
Although Broome has not raised as much as James, her campaign announced Thursday that it has exceeded its fundraising goals so far. Her campaign has raised more than twice as much at this point in the race as it did in her previous mayoral runs in 2016 and 2020.
James’ early entry into the race and her rapid fundraising success may have sparked a response from the incumbent, who then stepped up her own fundraising efforts.
“There is an arms race,” said Couvillon.
He said the situation is also exacerbated when a mayoral election and a presidential election take place at the same time, which means high voter turnout. Elections with higher turnout require greater efforts and more money to reach voters, he said.
“There will be casual voters who will defect, which means that the media will become even more important in reaching these casual voters,” said Couvillon. “We are talking about dissatisfied voters who would normally pay little attention to what happens in a local election, such as the election of the mayor.”
Recent campaign finance reports for Broome and James contain evidence that appears to support the analyst’s theory.
Between May 1 and the end of July, Broome’s campaign spent about $33,000 on campaign videos and social media management.
During the same period, James spent over $50,000 on fundraising consulting services for his campaign.
The more than $800,000 James has already raised is far more than any mayoral candidate has raised from the beginning of an election year through the end of July in at least 25 years.
He did this by attracting support from both corporations and individuals through small contributions. More than half of the donations to his campaign were $100 or less.
Major Baton Rouge-area companies that have donated to James include MAPP Group, Guarantee Restoration and the Law Office of Spencer Calahan.
Broome has also received support from businesses, with four donations totaling $20,000 coming from the Engquist family of Engquist Development, according to her most recent filing.
Mayor Sharon Weston Broome, hand in hand with her husband Marvin Broome, walks with her supporters and a jazz band to City Hall before officially qualifying for re-election on Wednesday, July 17, 2024.
The enormous sums James has raised so far with his campaign have also exposed him to attacks.
Last month, the candidate was attacked in a PAC-funded radio ad claiming he had accepted money from “Donald Trump’s deep-pocketed MAGA donors.”
James called the claims about MAGA-backed donations a lie, saying that while he has received money from conservatives, so has Broome.
As things stand, three Republicans will be on the ballot in November, although none of them declared their candidacy until last month. Sid Edwards, Nathaniel Hearn and Steve Myers have all qualified as Republicans. Another GOP candidate, Tammy Cook, has also qualified. Although she has not officially withdrawn her candidacy, Cook announced in a statement last week that she was dropping out of the race.
Neither Edwards, Hearn nor Myers have held elected office in Baton Rouge.
Couvillon said that part of the reason James was able to raise so much money was because no prominent Republican candidate had entered the race as early as he had. With no other prominent candidate available as an option, donors who did not want to see Broome re-elected began writing checks to James early on.
“(James) got the lion’s share of the money from the business community, which obviously had a problem with the current mayor-president,” Couvillon said. “You don’t just raise $800,000. In my opinion, that $800,000 represents enough people who, at least in the donor or business community, are unhappy with the current mayor that they would openly give money to a challenger who gets in that early.”
On average, the James campaign has received about $5,032 per day since donations began, while the Broome camp has received an average of $2,567 per day.
If things continue like this, the two candidates could raise nearly $2 million between them by the November election – an unprecedented sum – and if there is a runoff in December, it could be even more.
