Summerville, S.C. - The three candidates for mayor of Summerville have all filed their 1st quarter results. Summerville Town Councilman and transportation engineer Russ Touchberry set a fundraising record for this early in the campaign.
Touchberry filed his first quarter disclosure with more than $75,000 raised. His haul includes more than $60,000 raised since he filed his initial disclosure in February. Sources say that amount raised was from a single fundraising event he held in mid March, a few weeks before he publicly announced he was running for mayor.
As expected when you raise that kind of money, a lot of Touchberry’s contributions were $1,000 maximum contributions and looked to be a variety of residents in the town, including small business owners and more of the younger professional crowd (under 50), which traditionally has not been a fundraising source in elections here.
Touchberry also this week announced his campaign kick off event that will be held May 10 at the Dorchester Boat club in the Oakbrook area. More information on that can be found here.
Real estate agent Dickie Miler filed his first quarter report raising approximately $6200 in the 1st quarter. Miler has been in the race for more than 6 months and has held multiple fundraising events. His total fundraising for the campaign so far is just over $22,000. A bulk of MIler's contributions throughout the campaign look to have come from members of his family (which is extensive in the town) and retirees.
Long-time Summerville Town Councilman and trial attorney Bill McIntosh has yet to publicly say he is running for mayor, but has made no secret about it either on social media. He started fundraising at the beginning of the year and raised $1,800 in the first quarter, buoyed by a late $500 contribution from his girlfriend and former town staffer Jill Weatherford’s last minute $500 contribution through her company.
The Town of Summerville had the same mayor for 40 years, but since legendary Mayor Berlin G. Myers left office - the races for mayor have been extremely competitive and more expensive. This year’s mayor race is shaping up to be the same. Four years ago, both current Summerville mayor Ricky Waring and Dorchester County Councilman Bill Hearn shattered fundraising records and expectations for a mayor’s race. For the whole campaign, they both raised and spent more than $100,000 on each campaign.
But, both were also campaigning and fundraising for more than a year. However, Touchberry ends the first quarter with more money raised and on hand than either of Waring or Hearn had at the end of the first quarter of their election year. This is despite Touchberry only fundraising for less than 2 months and only publicly announcing his campaign a week before the fundraising reports were due.
Below are the figures the Summerville Mayor candidates reported in 1st quarter fundraising:
Russ Touchberry
1st Quarter Report Raised: $63,800
Total Raised: $75,800 (includes $10,000 personal loan to campaign)
Cash on Hand: $57,249.51
Dickie Miler
1st Quarter Report Raised: $6,225.41
Total Raised: $22,086.29 (which includes $1,968 in personal loan to campaign)
Cash on Hand: $16,203.03
Bill McIntosh
1st Quarter Report Raised: $1,800
Total Raised: $4400
Cash on Hand: $4400
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