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February 7, 2010

By Jennifer Jacob Brown / jbrown@themeridianstar.com The Meridian Star The Meridian Star Sun Feb 07, 2010, 08:30 AM CST

MERIDIAN —     Going through campaign finance reports can be pretty tedious business. The hundreds of dollar amounts filling pages upon pages seem to run together, causing the eyes to glaze over. But when it comes to last year's mayoral race, one bit of campaign finance information stands out from the rest — this election cost gobs of money.

    With Democratic candidate Percy Bland and new Mayor Cheri Barry raising a combined $259,294.70, the 2009 mayoral race just might be the most expensive in Meridian history.

    The recently released finance reports are a monetary snapshot of just how heated the 2009 race was. That is, they show that a lot of people in Meridian wanted their candidate to win badly enough to put their own money into it.

    Of the nearly $260,000 donated to mayoral candidates, Barry raised $141,881 and Bland raised $117,413.

    The annual and termination campaign finance reports were turned in to the city's finance and records office by Jan. 29 of this year. That included annual reports for Barry, Bland, and City Councilman Bobby Smith and termination reports for Bland, Smith, Councilman Jesse E. Palmer, Sr., Councilwoman Barbara Henson, the Committee to Re-elect Mayor John Robert Smith, and mayoral primary candidate Bill Marcy.

    Barry's report included details on exactly how her $142,000 in campaign funds were spent. Most of it, $71,465.44 to be exact, went toward advertising. Many of the other expenses were also forms of advertising, such as $7,074 spent on campaign t-shirts and $17,106 spent on signs.

    Other notable costs included $3,945 for polling, $11,189 for fundraiser entertainment, and $8,323 for campaign materials such as flyers.

    The report also showed where Barry's campaign funds came from. Most of it was donated by individuals in amounts ranging from $200 to $1,000, but E. Bruce Martin, George R. Rea Jr., Jimmy and Ann Alexander, Marty Davidson, and The Watchdog Political Action Committee all donated $2,000 or more.

    The Barry campaign still retains $12,158.31.

    Of the $117,000 raised by Percy Bland, almost all was spent on advertising and maintaining a campaign headquarters.

    Though former Mayor John Robert Smith chose not to run for re-election in 2009, the Committee to Re-elect John Robert Smith still had $18,922.44 left over from previous years, which was disbursed to Smith after he chose not to run again.

    Bobby Smith raised $7,295.40. A complete report of how that was spent was not available. Palmer raised $2,100, which was spent on various forms of advertising. Henson raised $1,675, which was also spent on advertising.

    Marcy, who dropped out of the mayoral race before the primary, raised $5,205, spent $1,507.75 on items that were not specified, and still retains $3,697.25.

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