It has been two months since Mayor Greg Nickels’ re-election campaign filed

Published 7:00 am Tuesday, July 28, 2009

It has been two months since Mayor Greg Nickels’ re-election campaign filed its last contributions summary report, adding up the money so far given towards a third mayoral term. Thus his total campaign donations have remained something of a mystery. The May summary showed Nickels had already received a wad – $373,000 – from donors. But now an accounting by SW of his weekly deposits since then, as reported on the Seattle Ethics and Elections website, shows an additional $161,000 was collected in June and July. That thus brings his sum total to $534,000 as of today. In all likelihood, by the November general election, Nickels could top his record fund-raising amount of $616,000, scored in 2001. He is already within a few thousand dollars of his total 2005 contributions, $537,000. Altogether, in 3 1/2 elections, he has so far raised $1.7 million, more than any other Seattle mayoral candidate in history. As Nickels liked to say, referring to his first mayoral run a dozen years ago when he raised $100,000 and was ousted in the primary, “I learned a lot in ’97.”