With the August 6th primary around the corner, you've probably noticed an influx of political signs and billboards around Spokane.
As of the latest available Public Disclosure Commission reports, which includes data up until the start of June, more than $150,000 had been spent on just the races for mayor and council president.
In the mayoral race, Nadine Woodward and Ben Stuckart are far outspending the other candidates, which is made obvious in the graph below.
We've categorized the spending into staff and consulting, events, signs, audio-visual or digital production, campaign literature, fees, supplies, and data management.
What's clear right away is that Stuckart and Woodward are spending a lot on staff. Woodward is also spending a ton on fundraising events. Shawn Poole stands out when it comes to signs, spending more on those than any other candidate.
Taking a closer look, we can see that Woodward has spent five digits on staffing and on events, and just over five grand on signs, production, and campaign literature, with a couple thousand each to fees and supplies.
Stuckart stands out in two areas. First, he's spent nearly $30,000 on staffing and consulting.
Second, he's spent a lot on data management, a common campaign tool used, for instance, to keep track of potential voters. He's the only mayoral candidate to spend in this area so far.
Production is big for Stuckart as well; most of that money is being spent in the digital arena.
Nearly half of Shawn Poole's money is going to signs.
He's actually spending more in that category than any other mayoral candidate, despite having a fraction of the funding.
Jonathan Bingle hasn't been spending much, a few hundred in most categories.
He's spent about a grand for literature and signs apiece, but his number one expense is actually still his filing fee.
Kelly Cruz had not reported any spending by the start of June.
The race for Spokane city council president has not resulted in as much spending as the mayor's race, but there's still a substantial amount of money being used.
Breean Beggs is spending by far the most, a lot on staff, events, and data management.
Cindy Wendle has the next most spent, mostly on staff and literature.
Phillip Tyler has spent about the same amount as Wendle, but his money is going almost exclusively to campaign events.
Mike Fagan had barely spent at all by June, with the bulk of his money going to his filing fee.
Spending for the month of June will be revealed in at the latest in a week, when the latest PDC reports will be due.
Also key to remember when observing expenditures: they're only a portion of the total money that has been raised.