Cortez raised, spent most funds

FINDLAY — Mike Cortez outspent his opponents on his way to winning the Republican nomination for Hancock County sheriff in the March primary. Cortez's campaign spent a total of $19,910 in funds and had $4,529 in in-kind contributions. Cortez's campaign received a total of $24,702 in monetary contributions in the campaign season. It entered the campaign season with $6,168. It finished the campaign with $12,336. It has an outstanding $5,000 loan from Cortez. Mark Price's campaign spent a total of $14,791. It received $14,485 in monetary contributions. It entered the campaign with $1,199 and finished with $5,805. It has an outstanding loan of $4,000 from Nicole Price. It appeared that candidate Daniel Harmon had not filed a post-election campaign finance report with the Hancock County Board of Elections by the Friday deadline. Since the filing of the committee's preelection report on March 5, Cortez's campaign received contributions of $3,000 each from Judy Miller and Don Miller. Other contributions were made by Brian Beltz, $500; Kelly Boutwell, $250. Contributions of $100 each were made by Connie Schaler, Shirley Kern, Becky Webb, Lance Stevens. Other donors included John Kinn, Leo Hendricks, $50 each. In-kind contributions were made by Joseph Lowery, $600 worth of DJ services for an election night watch party; Amy Cortez, $280 worth of Facebook ads; and David Morrow, $250 worth of photography services at an election night watch party. Since its report filed two weeks before the primary, the Cortez campaign spent $1,444 for radio advertising; $1,378 for food, supplies and clubhouse rental for a primary election night watch party; $391 for a campaign volunteer appreciation dinner; $300 for a social media campaign video; $232 for campaign T-shirts; $108 for stamps. Top contributions to Price's campaign since the report filed two weeks before the primary were from: John Larbus, $3,000; Lauren Heldman, $1,000; and $500 each from Bonnie Koehler, James Koehler, Thomas Smith, Rachel Stevens. Donations of $300 each were made by Eric Hausserman and Dave Thomas. Others donating to Price's campaign were Jessica Heldman-Beck, $250; Athena Yeater, $200; Joseph Niemeyer, $150. Contributing $100 each were Christine Niese, Bonnie Dunbar, Cathy McClain, Rex Bibler, Paul Cannon, David Glass, Raquel Price. Two anonymous donations of $100 each were received by the campaign. Since its last report filed two weeks before the primary, the Price campaign spent $2,890 for radio advertising and $1,931 for printing and postage of mailings.