SUPER-SIZED CAMPAIGN CASH

The group flooding District 14 with money isn’t affiliated with any council candidate. But it’s clearly targeting one of them.

BY KERI MITCHELL

Which candidate has spent the most money in the District 14 council race?

None of the above.

As of press time, a registered Super PAC calling itself “For Our Community”has spent more than $33,000 on digital advertising and mailers in an attempt to unseatDistrict 14 Councilman Philip Kingston, according to the most recent campaign finance reports.

That’s more than any of the three can- didates in the race have spent trying to promote themselves. The Super PAC, by law, is not directly associated with any local politician or candidate.

District 14 includes the M Streets, Lower Greenville and Old East Dallas. All candidates and PACs are required by the Texas Ethics Commission to file campaign finance reports at various points before the election. According to the April 6 reports, challenger Matt Wood, who lives in Junius Heights, had raised nearly $46,000 and spent

Election By The Numbers

MAY 6 Election Day MAY 2 last day to cast an early ballot

THREE candidates $51,859 total political contributions for incumbent Philip Kingston since January $94,240.54 total Kingston had in his campaign coffers on April 6, including pre-2017 donations

$45,705 total political contributions for challenger Matt Wood since he announced his campaign Feb. 17

$0 total political contributions for challenger Kim Welch since he filed to run Dec. 12

$271,000 total political contributions to a Super PAC opposing Philip Kingston and supporting Matt Wood along with five Dallas City Council incumbents as of April 6

$33,256.53 amount the Super PAC has spent on research, mailers and digital advertising to unseat Kingston, more than 1/3 of its $95,000+ in expenditures

$852.64 amount the Super PAC has spent on advertising consulting and courier fees to support Matt Wood

THREE East Dallas races, two city council, one Dallas ISD board of

9.6 percent of East Dallas residents who voted in the 2013 election

TWO candidates

$15,160 total political contributions for incumbent Mark Clayton since January

$23,527.38 total Clayton had in his campaign coffers on April 6, including pre-2017 donations

$0 total political contributions for challenger Arthur Adams, Jr.

TWO candidates

$54,892 total political contributions for incumbent Dustin Marshall since Jan. 17

$4,180 total political contributions for challenger Lori Fitzpatrick since she filed to run Feb. 10 roughly $6,000. Kingston, who lives in the Belmont Addition Historic District, hadraised more than $50,000since January and spent a little less than $20,000. Challenger and Downtown resident Kim Welch had not reported raising or spending any money.

Source: Campaign finance reports as of April 6, required to be filed 30 days prior to the May 6 election by the State of Texas Ethics Commission. Updates of donations and expenditures are required April 29, seven days prior to the election, which is too late for our print edition but can be viewed at lakewood.advocatemag.com.

Combined with Kingston’s previous donations, the almost $95,000 in hiscampaign coffers going into the May 6 election wasmore than double Wood’s $40,000.

For Our Community had $185,000 going into 2017 and, since January, solicited another $86,000, bringing its grand total to $271,000 30 days prior to the election. (Super PACs, unlike candidates, don’t have limits ondonations they can accept from individualsor corporations.

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They’re often involved with state and national political races; they typically haven’t been involved in individual Dallas political races.)

For Our Community’slatest campaign finance reportmakes explicit its support of five City Council incumbents and one challenger — Monica Alonzo, Rick Callahan, Casey Thomas, Erik Wilson, Tiffinni Young and Matt Wood.

Kingston is the only candidate For Our Community appears to be spending money to oppose, and he seems to be a big focus of the donors’ efforts. Of the roughly $95,000 the Super PAC has spent so far, more than a third of the money has been directed toward anti-Kingston efforts.

“If the message is, ‘Philip is not effective,’ then no, that message will not sell. My record speaks for itself,” Kingston says. “If you’re a popular incumbent with a really great track record, the only way to beat me is to lie. Those fliers say moreabout them than they do about me.”

The mailers and digital ads mainly have criticized Kingston’s disparaging remarks to council colleagues and belittling of city staff (the latter, he says,

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are quotes taken out of context). Wood, stumping at a meet-and-greet recently, similarly critiqued Kingston’s “tenor and divisiveness, over the last two years in particular.”

Wood says, however, that even though “some of the folks supporting [For Our Community] are supporting me,” he and his campaign “had nothing to do with that.”

“I understand their frustration, and

I’m hearing it more and more as I’m meeting with residents in District 14 and people who are in the business community in District 14,” Wood says. “It’s really not what I’m about, though. I’d just as soon things not get dirty and people vote based on what they hear.”

In addition to the mailers attacking Kingston, For Our Community funded at least one of Wood’s April promotional mailers. It reinforced the challenger’s