LOGAN – In terms of dollars and cents, Logan mayoral candidates Mark Anderson and Alanna Nafziger couldn’t be more different.
A current member of the Logan Municipal Council, Anderson’s low-key, pro-business campaign is running in the red.
Leaning on her master’s degree in Landscape Architecture, Nafziger’s campaign focusing on environmental issues is flush, with a comfortable balance of more than $3,800 going into the final weeks prior to the municipal election.
That’s according to financial disclosure statements filed by both candidates and released by Logan city officials on Oct. 7.
Those statements reveal that Anderson has raised a grand total of $750 since the municipal primary and spent $1,134, leaving his campaign with a negative balance of $384.
Meanwhile, Nafziger has raised $12,483.05 since the primary and spent $8,657.91, leaving a healthy balance of $3,825.14.
The bulk of Nafziger’s recent contributions, however, have been made up of $5,000 of in-kind donation from the Utah-based Ares Film Production company and another $5,000 contribution from the out-of-state Way Back Political Action Committee.
The Way Back PAC is a political action committee that raises money to support candidates in the western United States who promote “representative and focused governing,” according to its website.
The Federal Election Commission indicates that Way Back is a hybrid PAC, meaning it maintains two separate accounts: one for direct candidate contributions and another for independent expenditures.
According to the campaign finance data organization OpenSecrets, the Way Back PAC is associated with Democratic, liberal causes and is registered in Wyoming.
Nafziger also outspent the incumbent council member in the run-up to the primary election on Aug. 12.
For that contest, during which three other candidates were eliminated, Anderson raised $5,350 and spent about $4,485. The bulk of those contributions came from the local business community.
During the same period, Nafziger raised $7,530 and spend more than $4,725. Those contributions included an initial $5,000 from the Way Back PAC and $150 from the Women’s Democratic Club of Utah.
Nafziger’s expenditures for the primary included more than $600 to the Utah State Democratic Committee for access to their voter files.
Under the state code, municipal elections throughout Utah are considered non-partisan. That tradition has its roots in Utah’s statehood in the late 1800s when the United States was experiencing a progressive wave of politics.