Funding seems to be falling from the sky and landing in state Senate candidate Michelle Stennett's lap. According to Stennett's June campaign financial disclosure statements, she had received almost $25,000 from voters, fellow legislators and political action committees to that point.
However, she said she didn't ask for a single contribution.
"I didn't solicit anything," said Stennett, a Democrat.
Because she has been filling in for her husband, long-term District 25 Sen. Clint Stennett, she said, she has developed a working relationship with many of the lobbyists who have donated about $21,000 to her campaign.
Stennett's Republican opponent, Jim Donoval, is objecting to the type of funding she has received on the grounds that it's not local enough.
"Outside interests are helping Michelle Stennett purchase that Senate seat," Donoval said.
He said he's concerned the funding will cause her to vote with lobbyists, not with district voters.
Stennett said her contributions are due to her honest way of dealing with lobbyists, not because she votes their way. She said she's disagreed with lobbyists but she is always willing to listen to their arguments and be honest about her disagreement—a technique she said Clint used as well.
"I'm not trying to play a sneaky end game. It's all very straightforward," Stennett said. "There is always a respectfulness."
Donoval has been adamant in asking Stennett to give back political action committee money, even as he admits he asked several of those political action committees for contributions himself.
"I have contacted lobbyists and PACs that are in line with what I believe are in line with the interests of the 25th District," he said.
Such committees, he said, include those concerned with business, commerce, hospitality and education. Donoval said he contacted the Boise-based Political Action Committee for Education and the Professional Firefighters of Idaho, among other groups.
Both groups chose to support Stennett instead. She also received unsolicited contributions from the Idaho Beer and Wine Distributors, Idaho Home Builders and the Idaho Committee on Hospitality and Sports.
Donoval has received one committee donation from the State Senate Republican Committee, but is mostly running his campaign on self-funded loans.
Donoval said he has received a "couple of hundred dollars" in voter contributions since the June disclosure was filed, contributions that will be listed in an Oct. 10 report.
< <
Constitution Party candidate Randy Patterson is funding his campaign with a $100 contribution from a cousin and $250 from his own pocket.
Stennett, however, has received more than $2,550 in voter contributions since her campaign began, not including a donation in her husband's name.
Some of the donations, she said, are due to her being a familiar face in the area.
"I'm the person they know," she said. "It gives them comfort that my politics are a little different from Clint's, but not dissimilar. People go from a real gut level."
As for whether money decides an election, the candidates differ in opinion.
"[Money] buys big signs that go on the roadways, it buys full-page ads in the Mountain Express, it pays for mailers to go out in the district, so I think it's very important," Donoval said.
Patterson, whose entire campaign budget is less than the amount Donoval donated to state representative candidate Alex Sutter, said he doesn't think money is a defining factor in an election and has not asked for any contributions.
"I decided to take a different road," Patterson said. "That's going to hurt me advertising-wise, that's all."
Instead of soliciting money for signs and mailings, Patterson launched an almost viral marketing campaign, a chain e-mail that outlines his positions and asks the recipients to forward it if they like what he has to say.
Even Stennett, who has the most funding of any of the legislative candidates currently running in the district, said contributions don't decide elections.
"Money, in my opinion, won't make or break it," she said.
Despite the almost $25,000 she disclosed, Stennett has spent just a fraction of it so far—a little less than $2,700 in the primary.
"I was pretty frugal," said Stennett.
Whatever their differences regarding methods and validity of funding sources, the three candidates seem to agree that a successful campaign will be based on getting out and meeting people on their own terms.
"It's mostly just sitting down with people and talking to them," Patterson said.
"The grassroots campaign is going to determine what makes this election," Donoval said, estimating that he's knocked on 1,500 to 2,000 doors in the district since beginning his campaign.
In response to a comment that her campaign has been "quiet" so far, Stennett said she's knocked on half the doors in the district and is working on the other half.
"I'm not quiet, I'm boots on the ground," she said. "In the end, it's about meeting the people."
The election is Nov. 2.
Katherine Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com
Top, Jim Donoval, Michelle Stennett and bottom, Randy Patterson
