Kane campaign includes Barry in self-funding category
Megan Barry's campaign has routinely decried the personal wealth of opponents as a rallying cry to her supporters. The issue has been the topic of Barry TV commercials and fundraising pushes.
But on Monday, Jeremy Kane's campaign highlighted the personal spending of Barry and grouped her into the same self-funding category.
More than $6.3 million in combined personal money from candidates has entered Nashville's mayoral election. That's easily the most in any mayoral race in this city's history.
Four candidates — Bill Freeman, Linda Eskind Rebrovick, David Fox and Charles Robert Bone — have surpassed or come to close to giving their campaigns $1 million in personal dollars. They've accounted for 97 percent of the money that has been personally loaned.
Barry last summer gave her campaign a $200,000 loan, which her campaign says was made against her Belmont home.
The Kane campaign centered on Barry and Fox — the latter whom has given his campaign $1.4 million, seven times more than Barry — in a news release Monday morning that touted Kane's recent online TV advertising push, which they said has garnered 500,000 total views. The Kane camp argued it has worked with "remarkable efficiency" and they framed it as a way to counter the money of others.
"With just only two weeks to go until Election Day, we are kicking our voter outreach into overdrive and our social media strategy is a crucial part of that effort," said Kane communications director Terry Vo. "We knew that we could not compete dollar-for-dollar on television with the personal wealth of candidates like Megan Barry and David Fox.
"While other campaigns spend inefficiently from bloated budgets paid for by their candidates' self-funding and see sparse results, our state-of-the-art online targeting and data-driven mail will ensure a high return on investment as our voters see a message tailored to them as they make their decisions."
Later on Monday, the Kane campaign made a similar case on Twitter as they sought to raise money before the fundraising deadline that passed at midnight.
Barry has talked about her opponents' money for months now. In her first television ad, Barry said, "My opponents are breaking the bank on TV ads." And in her next TV ad, Barry told viewers, "I didn't have millions," as she recounted her entry into politics.
More recently, Barry has tried to use the injection of Super PAC spending in the mayoral race to get her donors to contribute. "Nashville isn't for sale," a recent Barry fundraiser email reads.
"It’s a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black for Ms. Barry to decry self-funding while self-funding her campaign to the tune of $200,000," Kane campaign manager Darden Coepland said. "In a race with at least five millionaires, Jeremy remains the only candidate who has not loaned his campaign a penny."
A review of tax returns from mayoral candidates found Barry reported $243,144 in income in 2013. Jeremy Kane reported an adjusted income of $227,596 last year. They ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.
The Tennessean asked the Barry campaign for a response to recent comments from the Kane camp. This is what we got:
"Megan took out a $200,000 loan against her house in order to show her commitment and resolve to win this campaign and make sure she had the resources to be competitive," Barry spokesman Sean Braisted said. "Since that time, she has not loaned the campaign any more money, and has no intention or capacity to do so. Her loan constituted about 18 percent of all money brought in for the campaign as of the last filing report, and that number will drop to about 16 percent or less after the next filing. Compare that to Bill Freeman whose campaign loans constituted about 71 percent of his overall money, and about 77 percent for David Fox."
Braisted also noted that Kane has contributed $7,500 to his own campaign, which is classified differently than a personal loan.
"If the argument is that proportion doesn't matter, Jeremy Kane has given his campaign $7,500 as of the last financial disclosure, which is more than the individual limit of $1,500," Braisted said.
Here is the total tally of personal loans as of the most recent reporting deadline, which ended June 30.
1. Freeman — $2.63 million
2. Fox — $1.4 million
3. Rebrovick — $1.2 million
4. Bone — $927,500
5. Barry — $200,000
6. Kane — $0
6. Gentry — $0