BY PHILIP NEWSWANGER, INSIDE BUSINESS - July 30, 2007
The figure of $221,000 resonates, doesn’t it?
That’s how much former vice mayor Will Sessoms has raised in six months – 16 months prior to the 2008 election of Virginia Beach mayor – from 209 donors, with 109 donors giving less than $1,000 and 100 donors giving $1,000 or more.
Sessoms plans to raise even more, approximately one-half million, to deliver his message to voters amid presidential and Congressional elections.
Don Weeks, who has filed his statement of organization to run for mayor, has raised less than $2,000 through two political action committees, City Hall for All and Friends of Don Weeks, according to David Rourk, Weeks’ campaign manager.
How much is in Mayor Meyera Oberndorf’s campaign chest is unknown at this point, since she has not yet said she would run.
Donors with major business ties to the region have weighed in on the 2008 Virginia Beach mayor’s race by donating generously to Sessoms’ campaign. Many previously gave to Oberndorf’s campaign for mayor in 2004.
Donors have given individually or through businesses. There’s no cap on donations to local races.
Organizations like the Virginia Beach division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce won’t weigh in on the race until closer to the election.
Virginia Beach Vision, a local think tank, will not endorse a candidate.
“We never have,” said Jim Pendergast, its executive director. “We never will.”
The group bills itself as non-partisan and issue-oriented.
“Were we to try to become a political structure of sorts, it would fracture our organization,” Pendergast said.
Asked about Sessoms’ fundraising efforts so far, Pendergast said, “I believe the impression is one of being overly impressed that he’s raised so much money so far in advance of the election.”
Ira Agricola, director of the Virginia Beach division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, said his group has not endorsed a candidate.
“It’s way out in front of the process for us,” he said.
The Chamber will interview candidates three months prior to the election. Both the incumbent and the challengers are interviewed, Agricola said.
“You give everyone the same amount of time,” he said. “You give everyone the same questions.”
Agricola said the process is time consuming. To help with the interviews, the Chamber invites outside business groups to participate. During previous campaigns, the Chamber invited the Central Business District association, the Tidewater Builders Association and the Hampton Roads Realtors Association to participate.
Agricola said Mayor Oberndorf has been a strong proponent of business and economic development.
“Her record really stands in regard to that,” he said.
Agricola also said the Chamber has supported candidates that raised less money than other candidates.
Mayor Oberndorf has said that she is not a strong fundraiser. She won her fifth term in 2004, narrowly beating challenger Robert Dean, a former city councilmember.
Oberndorf received 21,000 votes and Dean 17,000 votes. After the election, Oberndorf would not say if she would run for a sixth term in 2008.
“Maybe I’ll find something equally as challenging at the end of the four years,” she said at the time. IB
