Candidates who raise the most money don’t necessarily end up winning in Framingham city elections. Number of local contributions, on the other hand, has been a pretty decent predictor, both in the 2017 mayoral race and District 2 City Council races. However, when looking at that metric for this year’s mayoral race so far, the time frame is critical.
Charlie Sisitsky is way ahead in number of local contributors this year: 173 vs 72. And that might be the time frame that matters, since Sisitsky didn’t announce his candidacy and start fundraising until this year.
But if you include last year, it’s more even: Mayor Spicer has a total of 164 local contributors when adding last year and this year – just slightly behind Sisitsky. And it’s not necessarily fair to discount the incumbent mayor’s supporters who gave in 2020.
(Note that while I attempted to dedupe for the same person contributing multiple times, some repeats may have been missed.)
One thing is clear, though: Charlie Sisitsky is raising the majority of his campaign funds from Framingham residents, while Mayor Spicer is getting most of her contributions from outside the city.
Number of contributors in Framingham vs elsewhere
Total raised in Framingham vs. elsewhere
(Sisitsky’s total excludes a $10,000 loan he made to his campaign)
For more information about contributions - including maps and tables of contributions by district - see my Framingham mayoral campaign finance interactive app.
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