![\"Las](\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/LasCrucesCityHall1-336x186.jpg\")
<\/a>Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>
Las Cruces City Hall<\/p><\/div>\n
All three candidates for mayor and several candidates running for three city council seats have partially or wholly funded their own campaigns, according to finance reports filed Tuesday<\/a>. The election is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n The heavy reliance on self-financing\u00a0comes as the city council is considering implementing a public financing system<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0elections beginning in 2017. Proponents say public financing would increase participation<\/a> by forcing candidates to collect\u00a0lots of small donations from voters in order to qualify to receive\u00a0public funds.\u00a0That would lead to more engagement between candidates and voters, they argue.<\/p>\n Here’s a rundown of the finance reports candidates filed Tuesday:<\/p>\n Ken Miyagishima, who is seeking a third term as mayor,\u00a0has personally loaned $11,300 to his campaign thus far, according to the finance report<\/a> he filed Tuesday.<\/p>\n In all, Miyagishima has raised $15,483.88 in cash and in-kind donations as of the report’s filing date. His campaign\u00a0had spent almost the same amount, $15,632.96.<\/p>\n One of Miyagishima’s challengers, outgoing city councilor Miguel Silva, has helped finance his own campaign with $5,300 in personal loans. His fundraising also included\u00a0a\u00a0$2,300 donation from Pic Quik Stores, according to his finance report<\/a>.<\/p>\n In all, Silva raised\u00a0$9,380.28 and spent\u00a0$6,598.82.<\/p>\n The third mayoral candidate, business owner Gina Montoya-Ortega,\u00a0had almost no financial activity on her report<\/a> — $164.98 in expenses, which she\u00a0paid for herself. She reported no other contributions.<\/p>\n In the District 1 race to replace Silva on the city council, Kasandra Gandara led the way in fundraising with $7,349.49 in cash and in-kind contributions, according to her report<\/a>.\u00a0Gandara’s largest donation of $1,000 came from her partner, N.M. Sen. Bill Soules. She\u00a0reported spending $5,848.18.<\/p>\n Eli Guzman was second with $6,230 in cash and in-kind contributions, according to his report<\/a>. His biggest contributor was his own business, Guzman Sport Karate Kickboxing, which gave $2,200.\u00a0He reported spending $4,155.50.<\/p>\n The third candidate in that race, Steve Calderazzo, made a $200 donation to his own campaign. He reported<\/a> no other contributions or expenses.<\/p>\n In the District 2 race, incumbent Gregory Z. Smith raised\u00a0$2,325, according to his report<\/a>. His largest donation of $1,000 came from Ted Ramirez. Smith’s\u00a0only self-financing was a $100 loan.\u00a0He\u00a0reported spending $196.22.<\/p>\n Smith’s challenger, Philip VanVeen, outraised the incumbent. He reported<\/a> $3,262.41 in cash and in-kind donations, including\u00a0three $500 donations from Roger and Jacqueline Pountney, Green Lizard LLC, and B.L. and M.L. Lawrence. VanVeen reported spending $2,380.19\u00a0thus far.<\/p>\n Jack Eakman\u00a0led the way in fundraising in the District 4 race to replace Nathan Small, who isn’t seeking re-election. Eakman raised $8,495, according to his report<\/a>. He gave his own campaign its largest contribution thus\u00a0far — a loan\u00a0of $3,000. Eakman reported spending $6,723.06.<\/p>\n Eakman was followed in the fundraising race by Richard Hall, who reported<\/a> raising $2,100 — all of it self-financing. Hall loaned his campaign $2,000 and made a $100 cash donation. He\u00a0reported spending $433.82.<\/p>\n The third candidate in that race, Gilbert Vasquez, reported<\/a> raising $1,230, which included a donation of $250 from Ernest and Nancy Apodaca. Vasquez didn’t give or loan his campaign any money. He reported spending $529.52.<\/p>\n The candidates in the race for the city’s presiding municipal judgeship, Kieran Ryan<\/a> and William M. Kinsella<\/a>, both reported raising and spending no money for their campaigns.<\/p>\n A prior version of this article incorrectly identified Soules as Gandara’s husband\u00a0rather than\u00a0partner.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All three candidates for mayor and several candidates running for three city council seats have partially or wholly funded their own campaigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[145,214,705,706],"class_list":["post-87064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-las-cruces","tag-las-cruces-election","tag-money-in-politics","tag-transparency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Mayor<\/h3>\n
District 1<\/h3>\n
District 2<\/h3>\n
District 4<\/h3>\n
Presiding municipal judge<\/h3>\n