In Lexington mayoral race, Gray beats Beatty 4 to 1 in quarterly fundraising
Mayor Jim Gray raised more than four times as much money as opponent Anthany Beatty in the most recent quarter and has more than twice as much cash on hand heading into the Nov. 4 general election, campaign finance reports filed this week show.
Gray, who was elected in 2010, reported raising $321,239 from May 21 until Oct. 3. The Gray campaign reports $162,957 cash on hand.
Beatty, a former Lexington police chief and University of Kentucky administrator, raised $76,491 and has $57,821 available. Of the $76,491, Beatty lent the campaign $12,000.
The reports were filed with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.
During the May primary, Beatty lent his campaign more than $60,000, for a total of $72,000 that he has lent.
Gray has not lent money to his campaign, according to his campaign finance report.
Gray said his strong fundraising shows the breadth of his backing.
"We are obviously gratified by the support that we have received throughout the city," Gray said.
During the tightly contested 2010 race against then-Mayor Jim Newberry, the former CEO of Gray Construction contributed more than $900,000 of his own money.
Gray said he wouldn't speculate on whether he would lend money to his campaign again.
Gray has already run one television advertisement. Beatty has no television ads yet and said this week that his fundraising would determine whether he would run television ads.
Neither Beatty nor his campaign was immediately available for comment.
Gray's campaign donors include many bold-print names, including Jerry Bruckheimer, a Hollywood producer, who gave Gray $1,000. Gray also received donations from known Republican donors, including Don and Mira Ball, Terry Forcht and several members of the Forcht family.
Beatty received donations from former Vice Mayor Mike Scanlon and Luther Deaton, chairman, president and CEO of Central Bank.
This story was originally published October 9, 2014 at 4:49 PM with the headline "In Lexington mayoral race, Gray beats Beatty 4 to 1 in quarterly fundraising."