Four candidates for Long Beach mayor raised more than $100,000 for their campaigns last year, according to paperwork filed with the City Clerk’s office, with three of them receiving more than $150,000 in the last six months alone. 

Forms filed on or before January 31–the last day for all candidates to disclose money received between July 1 through December 31–show Doug Otto’s total contributions from the public are in excess of $250,000, the most of any of the 10 mayoral candidates. Nearly 70% of Otto’s donations also came from within the City of Long Beach. 

Despite a strong showing at the end of the last filing period, Damon Dunn received only $38,476 in contributions this period, a fraction of the nearly $250,000 he had received before June 2013, a number that included a $125,000 self loan. His total amount of contributions are $279,905, though only $154,000 of that has been through public donations. 

Though Vice Mayor Robert Garcia’s paperwork had not been posted to the City Clerk’s website by February 1, he released a statement saying he had received $220,000 to date, including $50,000 in online donations. And Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal raised $174,585 in just four months of campaigning; she announced her run for mayor in September, months after many of the other top contenders.  

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The spread of donations among the top four fundraisers so far still pales in comparison the nearly $450,000 that current Mayor Bob Foster pulled during the same July-December period when he first ran for office in 2006. At the time, that amount was more than triple his nearest opponent and more than every other candidate’s contributions combined. 

The only other two mayoral candidates to file contribution paperwork before the deadline were 5th District Councilmember Gerrie Schipske and Jana Shields. 

Schipske raised $35,953 since June 2013 bringing her annual fundraising total to $59,151, while Shields received contributions of $6000 in all of last year, including over $1000 in non-monetary contributions.

Primary election contribution limits state that candidates can only accept $750 per donor, though the limit resets after the primary for the general election. 

To view all of the filed contribution paperwork online, visit the CampaignDocs e-retrieval page.