Mark Garber’s $338,000 loan to his campaign should come in handy in the home stretch to the Oct. 24 election as it leaves him with more than twice as much cash on hand as the other top competitor in the race: Scott Police Chief Chad Leger.
While both candidates raised almost exactly the same amount since January, according to the Louisiana Board of Ethics — Garber raised $336,378.99 to Leger’s $336,759.64 — Garber’s self-loan leaves him with $361,870.22 to spend in the final four weeks of the campaign compared to $159,621.88 for Leger.
Coming in a distant third is candidate John Rogers, who raised a total this year of $42,650 but has a mere $325 in the bank. Financial figures for the fourth candidate, Rick Chargois, were not available Friday morning at the Ethics website.
News of Garber’s financial edge over Leger — the two are widely considered the most likely to make a runoff following the October election — comes just days after the man they hope to replace, Sheriff Mike Neustrom, endorsed Garber to succeed him. Sources have told The IND that Garber’s strategy all along has been to hold back on TV and radio advertising until the final weeks of the campaign then unleash a “shock-and-awe” blitz. These latest fundraising figures suggests he’ll do just that in the coming weeks, with money left to spare for the runoff.
If you want to see who’s giving campaign donations to whom in the race, simply enter a candidate’s name in the search field here at the Ethics website and follow the links, or money, as they say.