Campaign money this election cycle
ContributionsBebe Heiskell: $108,113Perry Lamb: $6,024Shannon Witfield: $53,903ExpensesBebe Heiskell: $67,087Perry Lamb: $5,859Shannon Whitfield: $43,149
So far, Bebe Heiskell has outspent her two opponents combined.
According to a campaign contribution report filed June 30, Heiskell has spent $67,000 this election cycle in her effort to hold on to Walker County’s sole commissioner seat. Shannon Whitfield, who won the Republican primary in May, has spent $43,000. Independent Perry Lamb has spent $6,000 – all out of his own pocket.
Whitfield said the most obvious difference between Heiskell and her opponents is the incumbent’s dependence on money from outside the county.
According to the most recent campaign contribution report, which covered April through June, about half of the $24,000 Heiskell raised during that period was from businesses or people not based in Walker County.
This includes $3,000 from Audia, the Pennsylvania company that opened a plant in the county. It also includes $2,500 from Findlays Tall Timbers in Ohio; $1,000 from AIMC Inc. in Woodstock, Ga.; and $250 from Envirogroup LLC in Ontario, Canada.
Heiskell did not return a call seeking comment for this story.
“A good number of her contributions were from vendors for the county that they lean on for support,” Whitfield said. “Most of my contributions are regular citizens in Walker County that want to see a change in the government.”
According to Whitfield’s campaign contribution report, about $11,000 of the $13,000 that he raised from April through June came from people who live (or lived) in the county. The biggest contributions came from Steven and Kay Ledbetter, who each contributed $2,500.
The Ledbetters are the former owners of Restaurant Enterprises in LaFayette.
The other largest donor listed on Whitfield’s report is Waymond “Sonny” Huggins, an eight-term state senator who took office in 1983. Huggins actually died in January, four months before his denotation to Whitfield’s campaign.
Whitfield said Huggins had been a supporter of his and attended his campaign kick-off event in November. He said Huggins’ family realized after he died that he still had money lingering in an old campaign account. Whitfield said a family member called him to say they wanted to donate to his campaign in Huggins’ memory.
Heiskell’s and Whitfield’s campaigns both spent more money on advertising than anything else from April through June. Heiskell spent about $10,600; Whitfield spent about $11,100. Heiskell also spent about $3,000 on a tournament at Canyon Ridge Golf Course, while Whitfield spent about $600 to rent the Walker County Civic Center.
Lamb, an independent, has operated on a shoestring budget with no donations yet. Then again, he has run his campaign with the identity of an outsider, saying he didn’t want to run as a Democrat or a Republican because he felt like the local political parties demand cumbersome loyalties.
Lamb was not officially a candidate until July 22, when the county board of elections reviewed all the signatures on his petition, as is required to run as an independent candidate. Lamb’s largest expense on his campaign report was $3,400 to the board of elections as a qualifying fee to run.
He also gave $2,000 to a Chickamauga woman as contract labor.
Lamb did not return a call seeking comment for this story.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.