Outside money bankrolled Lorna Smith. An out-of-state donor made the largest single contribution to top finisher Heidi Eisenhour. Even Amanda Funaro, who is in third place after the first count of ballots, received sizable contributions from outside Jefferson County and the State of Washington.
Eisenhour and Smith will move onto the general election. Funaro’s first attempt at public office is over.
Outsiders Bankroll Lorna Smith
Lorna Smith
Eight of ten of Smith’s top donors were from outside Jefferson County. Not including loans from herself, she raised just under $20,000 from 188 separate donations, of which 84 were not from here. Many of those donations were from out of state.
Smith’s largest single donations came from Seattle residents Martha Kongsgaard and Peter Goldman of the Kongsgaard-Goldman Foundation. The wealthy husband and wife contributed $3,000.
Smith received $11,518 from donors outside Jefferson County, or 58% of all funds she raised. Smith received more money from out-of-county and out-of-state donors than Funaro raised altogether. Without help from outside donations, Smith would have raised under $8,500, less than Funaro raised within Jefferson County.
Funaro raised a total of $11,084, not including $1,020 she donated to her own campaign. Of that amount, $1,957.40 came from five out-of-state donors. Funaro’s second largest donation, $1,000, came from Carolyn Elgin of Talihina, Oklahoma.
Eisenhour Received Significant Outside Money
Top vote-getter Eisenhour raised a total of $28,020. Her largest contribution, $1,000, came from rancher and conservationist Seth Hadley of Tucson, Arizona. Of 191 separate donations, 33 came from outside Jefferson County or outside Washington state. Outside donors gave Eisenhour $6,375, or 23% of her total.
Notable Out-of-State Environmentalist Funding
Both Smith and Eisenhour have earned national recognition for their work in conservation and wilderness protection. It is unsurprising that they have substantial support from environmentalists, some quite notable. Smith received $500 from Brock Evans, a legendary activist who has held high level positions with the Oregon Environmental Council, Audubon Society and Sierra Club. He is currently president of the Endangered Species Coalition. Smith has received support from other individuals well known for their work in protecting wilderness, such as the Jones sisters of Boulder, Colorado. These twin sisters currently hold the positions of Boulder Mayor and county commissioner.
Eisenhour can claim her own legendary conservation support. Her largest contribution, as mentioned, was from Seth Hadley. He and his family have created a very successful collaborative effort between ranchers and conservationists in New Mexico’s Bootheel and the Guadalupe Mountains, known as the Malpai Borderlands Group. The Hadley patriarch–cowboy, poet, conservationist–the late Drum Hadley, created the Animas Foundation, to acquire the 502 square mile Gray Ranch at the tip of the Bootheel from the Nature Conservancy. The Gray Rach has since become one of the world’s leading models for how a working ranch can responsibly manage and protect grasslands and fragile habitat.
This may be an over generalization, but if any difference in the environmentalist support received by these candidates stands out, it is this: Smith’s endorsements come from professional activists who protect land and animals by removing people or prohibiting human activities, while Eisenhour’s endorsements run more along the line of land trusts and conservation easements which keep land in productive use while protecting its natural and wild characteristics.
[Editor’s note: This data was compiled from campaign finance reports filed with the Public Disclosure Commission. In another life I was executive director of a small national environmental group and a statewide wilderness alliance and so became familiar with the people and organizations mentioned in this article.]
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our "About" page for more information.
Ms. Eisenhour has an impressive record within the realm of conservation. If she wins the election, I hope Heidi Eisenhour will be as much of an activist in coming up with, and enacting a real plan for affordable housing.
Unfortunately, the Blue Collar Worker in Jefferson County keeps receiving the short end of the stick by the one party (Democrat), super majority which has been in power for the last 25 years, both in county, and in city. This combined group of imbedded politicians have done nothing of note whatsoever about affordable housing. I’m looking forward to hearing candidate Eisenhour’s actual plan.