Sales Tax Campaign Cash

The opposing sides in the one-cent local option sales tax rumble have filed campaign finance reports. And if you were expecting the yes side to wallop the no side in the cash race, you were correct.

The Protect Cedar Rapids Committee raised $450,955 and spent $377,083.80, according to its report filed today.

We Can Do Better CR raised $3,324 and spent $1,952.87, according to its report filed Wednesday evening.

Protect Cedar Rapids received quite a load of large donations, including 10 contributions of $15,000 or more. Penford Products contributed $50,000, the largest donation. I guess it's no real surprise that the company would be interested in west side flood protection.

United Fire Group donated $25,000, while the Chamber and Alliant Energy each contributed $20,000. Great America Leasing, St. Luke's, Diamond V, CRST, Transamerica and US Bank each contributed $15,000.

There were also several $10,000 donations, including one from GFOC Holdings. That's Gazette Family of Companies, in the interest of full disclosure.

The vote yessers paid just over $120,000 nearly $200,000 to Davenport-based political consultant Victory Enterprises, mostly for TV advertisements.

The top contributors on the no side are Rachel Jones and Jim Burke of Cedar Rapids, who each gave $300. The biggest expenditure was $698.10, postage for a bulk rate mailing.

These reports will probably make everyone happy. The vote yes forces can point to strong support from many of the city's most important businesses and institutions. The vote no side can claim the role of David to the big money Goliath.

Will the cash advantage mean a vote advantage? That's how it usually works, but special elections often defy convention and prediction. So I've pretty much quit trying to guess. We'll know in five days.