Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl finished a successful election season with $502,637 in his campaign coffers, while his Republican foe, Mark DeSantis, completed his failed bid with $1,279.
Both campaigns filed reports of donations and spending through Nov. 26 with the Allegheny County Elections Division on yesterday's deadline.
The $83,610 Mr. Ravenstahl raised during the month prior to the deadline was bolstered by $23,000 in donations on Nov. 8 from Boston-area residents, almost all of whom are listed on the report as associates of the developer Beacon/Corcoran Jennison. That developer, which plans to add to its Oak Hill public-private housing community under a deal the mayor brokered, hosted him in Boston Sept. 26.
Other big donors were the Western Pennsylvania Laborers Political Action Committee, Anderson Group executive William Anderson, and Hawthorne Group executive Henry Posner Jr., each giving $10,000.
The Ravenstahl campaign's biggest expenditures were $35,095 in donations to the Allegheny County Democratic Committee. The committee then gave $20,025 to city ward committees on Nov. 5 and Nov. 6 for get-out-the-vote activities.
Last year and this year, Mr. Ravenstahl's campaign raised $1.15 million and spent $652,000.
Mr. DeSantis reported raising $327,624 and spending nearly all of it during the campaign. His top late donors were the Grow PA PAC, Republican State Committee and executive David Barensfeld of manufacturer The Ellwood Group, at $10,000 each.
The special election to fill out the term won by the late Mayor Bob O'Connor was held Nov. 6. The mayor's office will next be on the ballot in 2009.
Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, a Democrat who was unopposed in the general election, finished the period with $1.93 million in his campaign account.
