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East Lansing City Council candidate campaign finance reports

November 5, 2019
<p>People grab “I voted” stickers in the East Lansing City Council Election on Nov. 5, 2019 at Hannah Community Center.</p>

People grab “I voted” stickers in the East Lansing City Council Election on Nov. 5, 2019 at Hannah Community Center.

Campaign finance reports do not completely tell the story of an election, but candidate spending sometimes correlates with victory. The candidates with the largest campaign contributions for the Nov. 5 East Lansing election are Jessy Gregg, Mark Meadows and John Revitte.

Out of the six candidates, Jessy Gregg has reported the most campaign funding, with a total of $15,764. At a near second, Mark Meadows has a total of $15,427. Third, Revitte stands at $9,168. As for spending, Gregg, Meadows, and Revitte have spent $11,056.25, $7,210.27, and $2,692.12, respectively.

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As the fourth most funded candidate, Erik Altmann totals at $7,375, while spending $5,354.45. At a relatively close fifth, Lisa Babcock totals at $6,205, but spent $3,844.15.

The net earnings graph subtracts the cost a candidate incurred from the total contributions. The figures include the filings from the Ingham County Clerk's office as well as late contributions to candidates Altmann, Meadows and Gregg.

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Warren Stanfield III has not filed the necessary campaign finance records, leading to two notices from the Ingham County Clerk's Office.

Stanfield was first notified in July of his failure to file his campaign finances, which led to late filing fees, according to Ingham County Clerk records. Stanfield was again notified in October, with continued late fees.

"I have raised no money, I have been entirely self-funded," Stanfield said. "I haven't been bought by anybody."

Stanfield said his understanding was that if he raised under a certain amount of money, he did not have to file a campaign finance report.

He said he attempted to resolve the situation with the Ingham County Clerk's Office, but experienced a slow response, though he said those he worked with were good people.

Stanfield's late fee has reached $300, but he is still attempting to get this fee waived.

Editor's note: This article was updated at 2:20 p.m. Nov. 5 to clarify that Altmann spent $5354.45 and had 18 unique contributors. 

This article was updated at 3:47 p.m. to specifify the figures in the story and clarify Altmann's net earnings. A previous version had an incorrect spending figure for Erik Altmann.

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