Cash For Council Candidates

These are tough times for a relative unknown to try to raise money for a political campaign, but it's gotta be done somehow -- it costs money to run a serious city-wide campaign. And we're only about 11 weeks from the preliminary election, if I'm not mistaken.

With that in mind, let's take a quick look at the 15 at-large Boston City Council candidates, who have just filed their end-of-June campaign-finance reports.  I'll take them in order of their reported June receipts, and list their June receipts; their total receipts for the cycle (going back to Jan. '08 for incumbents, and for challengers whenever they opened their campaign account); and their cash on hand as of June 30. Plus, of course, I'll make comments. My apologies if I botch any of the math.

John Connolly -- June: $50,572   Total: $270,003   cash: appr. $70,000. (some is in savings) Connolly started in a hole, paying back loans that got him through the 2007 campaign. His 50k June puts him back in a decent cash situation, but still not exactly towering over the masses.

Ayanna Pressley -- June: $20,129  Total: $44,727  cash: $22,256. Given her late entry, she's moved quickly up the money-raised list. The question now is whether the monthly take will keep growing through the summer, or if she's tapped out the low-hanging fruit on her donor list.

Stephen Murphy -- June: $18,220  Total: $119,095  cash: $68,809. Slow and steady, Murph isn't setting any personal records, but he'll have enough for the fall push.

Felix G. Arroyo -- June: $14,369  Total: $56,296  cash: $37,615. A good month for Arroyo (helped by his official campaign kick-off), in fact, his best yet, since opening his account in October. Keep it up.

Tomas Gonzalez -- June: $12,080  Total: $21,978  cash: $8726. He needed to start bringing in some dough, and he did. Still way behind the top tier, but this shows he can't be written off.

Tito Jackson -- June: $10,750  Total: $10,788  Cash: $10,041. This was pretty much all from a $10,000 loan to himself, but that still counts -- the postmaster and printer don't care. His real fundraising kicked off last week, after June closed (he's already reported about $2500 since then), so we have to wait to see what he can do.

Andrew Kenneally -- June: $10,411  Total: $49,183  Cash: $36,791. He's working it. Clearly part of the upper tier.

Ego Ezedi -- June: $10,140  Total: $13,528  Cash: $9204. Ezedi got a late start, and says he's got a bunch of pledged contributions coming. The postmaster and printer don't accept pledges.

Robert Fortes -- June: $3475  Total: $5875  Cash: $1341. The big question is whether Fortes can tap into the circle of Romney-Healey GOP contributors. So far he's got a few of them (including Dan Winslow and Renee Fry), so is that the start of something big?

Hiep Nguyen -- June: $2800  Total: $3200  Cash: $526. Help me out here, Hiep; I'm trying to see you as a candidate for the Final Eight, but I need to see some money.

Jean-Claude Sanon -- June: $1220  Total: $11,574  Cash: $4900. Sanon was planning a late-June fundraising push in the Haitian community. If this is all he got, that's a problem; if the fruits came in after June 30, he could be OK.

Doug Bennett -- June: $550  Total: $13,986  Cash: $6902. Disappointing.

Bill Trabucco -- June: $225  Total: $225  Cash: $20. He's not accepting contributions, which I suppose is admirable, but what now?

Scotland Willis -- June: $200  Total: $3900  Cash: $2375. Don't know what's happening here. Willis comes across well, but he's got no operation.

Sean Ryan -- June: $0  Total: $500  Cash: $354. Shouldn't he be able to tap into the Ron Paulites and Tea Partiers?