Crowley's career season

If you're the kind of political junkie who pores over campaign finance reports like baseball fans look at box scores and batting averages, here's another way to look at the campaign finance reports filed Monday: David C. Crowley is having a breakout year.

Look at it like this: In some ways, candidates are competing against only themselves. Democrat Laketa Cole and Charterite Jim Tarbell placed third and fourth in the 2003 voting despite raising just less than $50,000 each. They could raise less money and still win. But Republicans Leslie Ghiz, Chris Monzel and Barbara Trauth all lost, despite raising more than $100,000 each. Damon Lynch III, then an independent and now an endorsed Democrat, had raised $0 by this time in 2003 -- but finished ahead of candidates whose early fund-raising was in the six figures.

So campaigns often benchmark themselves against their own previous fund-raising totals, not other candidates. For the 10 council candidates returning from the 2003 campaign, here's how the 120-day reports filed Monday compare to the same report they filed two years ago:

Candidate	2003	2005	Difference
David Crowley (D)	$37,150	$92,419	$55,269
John Cranley (D)	$100,435	$135,297	$34,862
Leslie Ghiz (R)	$56,088	$75,663	$19,575
Sam Malone (R)	$6,775	$23,805	$17,030
Nick Spencer (C)	$2,800	$15,414	$12,614
Damon Lynch III (I, D)	$0	$9,914	$9,914
Christopher Smitherman (C)	$28,981	$33,363	$4,382
Laketa Cole (D)	$19,445	$21,156	$1,711
Chris Monzel (R)	$102,689	$94,234	($8,455)
Jim Tarbell (C)	$17,159	$7,750	($9,409)

Crowley (above, right, with John Cranley) finished ninth in 2003, just 747 votes above Lynch. Crowley was thought to be "on the bubble" in 2005, but not any more.

"Those numbers are unbelievable," said Crowley staffer Rocky Merz. He attributes Crowley's surge in fund-raising to an earlier start and a yearning for maturity from contributors "sick of the political gamesmanship" at City Council and in the mayoral campaign.

At 68, Crowley is the oldest member of City Council and, if re-elected, will trail only Jim Tarbell and Cranley in council tenure.

(Photo courtesy of Insuring the Children.)