Follow the Money: Mayoral Campaign Expenditures

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Chattarati's Cash Maps allow you to follow a local candidate's political contributions, but have you ever wondered where that money goes once it enters his/her campaign coffers? No, we're not launching a new application just yet, but we were curious about where the two mayoral candidates spent the bulk of their money in pursuit of elected office. Most of a campaign's money is spent on consulting, advertising, and administrative costs. In the case of both incumbent Ron Littlefield and challenger Rob Healy, part of that money gets spent on firms outside the Chattanooga area, but the majority goes into local ad buys for TV and radio.

We'll start with Ron Littlefield, who raised $184,943 in contributions for the general election. His expenditures total $120,804 from July 2008 to February 2009. Here is a summary of his advertising and consulting expenses:

• $24,020 - TV advertising


• $18,159 - radio advertising


• $18,000 - Multi Quest International, Inc. for polling and research.


• $10,167 - Buisson Creative Strategies for advertising services.


• $2421 - Diversified Companies, LLC for printing


• $1800 - Lock Sign & Display, Inc. for advertising signs


• $900 - Online advertising

Challenger Rob Healy raised $54,209 in contributions, and spent $49,123 during the campaign:

• $12,442 - TV advertising.


• $8500 - radio advertising.


• $7272 - ImageWorks for printing.


• $4,161 - TN Valley Sign & Printing for printing.


• $3217 - For media consulting, PR, and web support.


• $2175 - Print and web advertising.


• $967 - Additional printing.

This data was taken from the candidates' financial disclosure forms. The forms will be available for download on Monday, March 2.