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Birmingham attorney Patrick Cooper reported an eye-opening $400,000-plus raised for his mayoral campaign, according to the 45-day finance disclosure forms filed yesterday. (And there were doubters.) The Birmingham News reports that the crowded field of candidates raised a total of $857,521. Perhaps as interesting as Cooper’s total was that “Most of Cooper’s contributions came from individuals and businesses, with just $6,000 coming from political action committees.”
City councilor Carole Smitherman was second with $214,700 raised. The only other candidate to report more than $100,000 raised was County commissioner Larry Langford at $122,550. Incumbent Bernard Kincaid fell just short at $99,352.
Other candidates fell well short of those numbers. Particularly noteworthy was that one-time interim mayor William Bell reported only $7,475 raised. In 1999, he collected over $1 million for the mayoral race that would have removed “interim” from his title had he won.
The election is Oct. 9.
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This shows the citizens of Birmingham that a lot of people believe in Patrick Cooper. He not getting
all that lobbyist money like Kincade and Smitherman. The folks of this community and communities
around this nation are giving money, people like me, common folks. Out with the old ( Kincade,
Smitherman, Bell, and Abbott) and in with the new Patrick Cooper. P.S. Out with the criminals
( Scrushy, Siegleman, and the newest cellmate Larry Langford ).
It is some how troubling to me (although I don’t even live in Jefferson County and have no dog in this fight)that Cooper has raised well in excess of $100,000 from outside Alabama.
[...] I find it interesting that Cooper reports a large lead in fundraising and is the only one who has been airing TV commercials. [...]
[...] Of those who reported the amounts raised since the August reports, Attorney Patrick Cooper leads all candidates. Again. He raised $156,575. [...]