Tarbell and Thomas ran most frugal campaigns

Money is important: Seven of the City Council candidates who spent the most money also got the most votes.

But it's not everything: Democrat Cecil Thomas and Charterite Jim Tarbell made the most of more meager resources to win seats on City Council.

And that's not to mention Mayor Mark Mallory, who overcame a three-to-one fund-raising disadvantage to thwart fellow Democrat David Pepper's $1.2 million campaign.

Here are the cost-per-vote totals for the major-party candidates, as of campaign finance reports filed with the Hamilton County Board of Elections Friday:

Rank	Candidate	Spending Total	Votes	Cost per vote
8	Chris Bortz (C)	$287,753	27,304	$10.54
6	Jeff Berding (D)	$293,783	28,344	$10.36
1	John Cranley (D)	$238,834	35,603	$ 6.71
4	David C. Crowley (D)	$180,313	29,856	$ 6.04
7	Chris Monzel (R)	$143,910	27,911	$ 5.16
5	Leslie Ghiz (R)	$131,442	29,758	$ 4.42
11	Christopher Smitherman (C)	$ 73,100	24,642	$ 2.97
17	Nick Spencer (C)	$ 27,247	9,462	$ 2.88
3	Laketa Cole (D)	$ 78,512	29,966	$ 2.62
10	Sam Malone (R)	$ 67,305	25,838	$ 2.60
16	Samantha Herd (D)	$ 30,065	14,306	$ 2.10
15	John Eby (R)	$ 32,939	16,271	$ 2.02
2	Jim Tarbell (C)	$ 64,695	32,392	$ 2.00
12	Damon Lynch III (D)	$ 43,141	22,556	$ 1.91
9	Cecil Thomas (D)	$ 31,161	27,091	$ 1.15

A few special notes:

• Independent Gerry Kraus spent $30,192 to get 4,719 votes, for a cost-per-vote of $6.40.
  
  
• Democrats Eve Bolton and Wendell Young are not included. They did not file post-general campaign finance reports by Friday's 4 p.m. deadline.
  
  
• Unlike previous campaign finance totals reported here, these are amounts spent, not raised.
  

Previous stories:

• Tarbell most efficient at wooing voters (2003)
• Campaign spending shows restraint (2001)
• Council candidates spent record $2.5M (1999)