Big city money... and it ain't from Wichita

Several Council members filed their campaign finance reports this week, and if addresses are any indication, Mayor Carlos Mayans has been looking beyond the city limits to corral support in 2006.

Among the donors are 24 out-of-town people, many of them with the same last name "Dugan." Turns out Dugan, who owns USF Dugan, a big trucking company, has quite a big family, all of whom were willing to give Mayans the maximum $500 contribution. And that's helped Mayans jump far ahead his most prominent challenger, Carl Brewer.

Brewer, meanwhile, has wowed the Minnesotan developers who have refurbished many downtown buildings and sparked something of a move back to folks living downtown...

The northerners and, ostensibly, their Twin Cities area families gave Brewer nearly half of his $8,100 jump start on this year's race. (He says that his campaign fund has grown "substantially" since, but won't say by how much.)

Meanwhile Council member Sue Schlapp surpassed everyone in the race. And she pointed out to Barely Eagle that if you subtract all the cash Mayans rolled over from his previous reports ($10,824) and all the money she rolled from her account ($3,000), she's got more message power than the standing mayor and former state House rep.