No surprise that the two incumbents on Mesa City Council raised the most money for their re-election bids in the July Primary, according to their campaign finance reports filed last week.
Councilwoman Alicia Goforth, who is fending off a challenge from four opponents to represent District 5 in northeast Mesa, garnered $53,859 in her campaign war chest.
She already had $5,874 in the bank and raised another $48,156 during the reporting period of Jan. 1 to March 31. A total of $34,906 was received from in-state donors and $13,250 came from Political Action Committees.
The United Mesa Firefighters PAC donated $6,750 and the Arizona Police Association PAC gave $6,500.
Sizable individual donations to Goforth came from Jeff Blandford of Pinnacle Holdings Co, a real estate developer in Gilbert, $7,031; Mesa real estate investor Randy Hansen, $6,750 and wife, Leslie Hansen, who gave $2,000 and Jeff Whiteman, CEO of Empire Southwest in Mesa, a Cat dealer, and his wife, Holly Whiteman, each gave $6,750.
Others who also donated included $3,125 from Chris Trendler, founding partner of Pendra Group, a leadership advisory firm; $1,000 from Steve Beck, president of COBE Real Estate; political consultant Stan Barnes, $500, land-use attorney Sean Lake, $500 and $400 from Councilman Rich Adams.
Goforth’s spending in her first quarter filing totaled $1,160, which included $810 for credit card processing fees.
Ryan Blakeman was second in the money race for the District 5 seat with a reported $25,950 raised.
He received $4,700 total, mostly from the development community. His wife, Jamie Blakeman, serves on Mesa’s Planning and Zoning Board.
Donors included land-use attorneys Ed Bull, Sean Lake and Reese Anderson, who each gave $500; $500 from Sharon Harper, CEO of commercial real estate Plaza Companies in Phoenix; $250 from Brett Anderson, landscape architect with Rvi in Phoenix and $500 from Daniel Slack, president of commercial real estate Baker Development in Scottsdale. According to Blakeman he’s spent $2,646, which he did not provide details.
Aleks Vranicic accumulated $23,943 for his campaign, which included $15,000 that he loaned to his campaign and $2,500 from The Freedom Club PAC.
Other donations included $312 from Ralph Heap of Mesa, a former state representative who is running for the Arizona Corporation Commission; $500 from Mesa retiree Jody Slechta; $104 from Melody Whetstone, who ran for Mesa council in 2024; Mesa retiree David Neves, $200 and $628 from Jelka Vranicic, a retiree in San Jose, California.
So far Vranicic’s spent $4,877 for services such as for consulting and fundraising activity.
The other two rivals for District 5 did not file by the April deadline.
Because Danny Hart opened his candidate committee on April 6, he will not need to file until next quarter and Amanda Jones has not yet opened a candidate committee, according to Mesa’s city clerk.
In the District 4 race, representing downtown and south of downtown, Ray Johnson was ahead of Nick Willis in campaign contributions. Incumbent Jenn Duff is termed out of office after serving two, four-year terms.
According to his filing, Johnson raised $14,830, which included a $10,000 loan.
Donors included land-use attorney Sean Lake, $1,000; Tom Rucker of Dry Force, a fire and water restoration business, $1,500; Councilman Rich Adams, $500 and David Cummard of Mahoney Group, business insurance broker, $500. His expenditures were $237 for bank fees.
Willis had $12,853 at the beginning of the reporting period, having raised that from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025. Some of his donors for that reporting period included former District 3 Mesa Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh, $200; $100 from Councilwoman Duff; $150 from Jeremy Spilsbury, husband of former Mesa Councilwoman Julie Spilsbury; $1,000 from Mesa retired Kristi Zundel and $500 from the terminated John Giles for Mayor committee.
For the first quarter of this year, Willis raised an additional $4,124.
Donations included $500 from Mike Hutchinson of PHX East Valley Partnership and a former Mesa city manager; $500 from Mesa retiree Giles Mead; $500 from Craig Willis an IT manager in Colorado and $500 from Al Gordon, CEO of National Strategies (NSI), a consulting firm in Maryland.
His spending so far totaled $5,439 for things such as ads, website host and consulting.
Although Scott Somers is running unopposed for his seat in southeast Mesa, he reported raising $47,104, most of it from the development community. He had $55,623 left in the bank after spending $3,712. The one person who filed a statement of interest to run against Somers couldn’t get enough signatures to get on the ballot.
Donations came from land-use attorney Jordan Rose, who gave $1,040; Phoenix real estate investor Andrew Cohn with Levine Inc., $6,750; land-use attorneys Sean Lake and Charles Huellmantel, who each gave $520; real estate developer Jeff Blanford with Pinnacle Holdings Co., $5,200; real estate developer David Martens, $1,040, political consultant Stan Barnes, 520, land-use attorneys Brennan Ray and Reese Anderson, each donating $208; Councilman Rich Adams, $260; investor Bill Levine and Susan Levine both of Levine Inc., each giving $6,750 and Vestar retail developer David Larcher, $2,600.
Somers’ expenses included payment for consulting and advertising.
The Primary is July 21 with a run-off on Nov. 3 if needed. Candidates who want to run as a write-in candidate have until May 22 to submit their paperwork.
Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.