By Denise Dunbar | ddunbar@alextimes.com

Preliminary candidate campaign finance reports for the second quarter were released Monday, and some of the numbers revealed are unprecedented for local elections in Alexandria. The three candidates running for mayor – Vice Mayor Amy Jackson, City Councilor Alyia Gaskins and former developer Steven Peterson – have raised a total of $614,873 in cash or in-kind donations since the start of their campaigns, according to data available on the Virginia Public Access Project website.

With $317,316 raised through June 6, Gaskins has garnered more than half of total donations in the mayoral race. Gaskins has received $133,370 – which is 42% of her total contributions – from one Alexandria couple, Reginald Brown and Tiffeny Sanchez, and one union, Unite Here and its political action committee, Workers Vote.

Brown and Sanchez have donated a total of $58,318 in four cash and one in-kind donation. Brown, who is a lawyer at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and a board member of the global investment firm Blackstone, has donated a total of $33,318 in two cash contributions and one in-kind donation. Sanchez, who, according to an internet, search resides at the same address as Brown, has made two cash donations totaling $25,000.

Unite Here, which does not have an office or any unionized workplaces in Alexandria, has contributed $75,052 to Gaskins, which is 24% of her total campaign contributions. Unite Here made a $10,000 cash donation in December 2023 immediately after Gaskins announced her intent to run for mayor.

Workers Vote, Unite Here’s PAC, has been conducting a controversial door-to-door canvassing effort on Gaskins’ behalf, using paid union workers. One worker told an Alexandria resident that Gaskins herself chose the slate on the glossy door placard being handed out – a claim that Gaskins and Unite Here both forcefully deny. Another worker told a different resident that they were being paid $19 per hour to canvass for Gaskins.

This week’s VPAP filings revealed that the Unite Here/Workers Vote door-to-door campaign cost $63,995 through June 6, with an additional Unite Here/Workers Vote in-kind donation of $1,057. Both donations were reported on May 14.

In addition, all six City Council candidates who were endorsed by Unite Here – Canek Aguirre, Sarah Bagley, John Taylor Chapman, Abdel Elnoubi, Kirk McPike and Jesse O’Connell – each reported in-kind donations from Workers Vote of $26,474. Five of the candidates reported receiving this money on May 14, while Bagley reported hers on April 30.

Unite Here has spent a total of $233,896 during the Democratic primary contest, according to the preliminary VPAP reports. All but the $10,000 cash donation to Gaskins was reported as in-kind contributions. Of the $233,896 donated, $158,844 went to the six endorsed Council candidates and the other $75,052 to Gaskins.

The fillings reveal that Jackson raised $134,168 between April 1 and June 6; however, the bulk of those funds were loans from Jackson to her campaign that total $110,302. Jackson made seven separate loans to her campaign between April 1 and June 6, the largest being $40,000 on May 18.

Jackson raised just $23,866 beyond the loans during that two-plus month timeframe from 136 individual donations.

Peterson has self-funded 46% of his campaign’s $103,405 in donations, according to VPAP.org. The report covering the period April 1 through June 6 shows that there were 19 individual donations other than those from Peterson himself to his campaign during that time frame.

The $614,873 raised by Gaskins, Jackson and Peterson in the 2024 Democratic primary dwarf amounts from the last three Democratic primaries, all of which were contested races.

Back in 2015, when both then-Vice Mayor Allison Silberberg and former Mayor Kerry Donley decided to challenge four-term incumbent Mayor Bill Euille, the three candidates raised a total of $364,670. Of that, Euille tallied by far the most donations, with $197,038. Silberberg, who prevailed in that election and again in the fall when Euille waged a write-in campaign, raised $84,790 for the Democratic primary, while Donley tallied $82,842, according to VPAP.org.

In 2018, incumbent Mayor Allison Silberberg raised $113,182, compared to $194,293 for then-Vice mayor Justin Wilson, who prevailed in the Democratic primary and again in November to capture the mayor’s chair. In 2021, Silberberg belatedly entered the race on the last day to file to challenge incumbent Mayor Wilson, and wound up raising an almost identical amount for the primary as in 2018: $113,593. Wilson raised $180,666 in his 2021 reelection primary bid. He won the primary and again in the November general election.

Wilson and Silberberg combined raised $307,475 in 2018 and $294,259 in 2021 for their Democratic primary races. Both totals are less than Gaskins alone has raised so far this year.