Becker leads Buhler in fund-raising for Salt Lake mayoral race

Ralph Becker is winning the fund-raising battle — and thus spending more money — than Dave Buhler in the race for Salt Lake City mayor.

Becker, the top vote-getter in the primary election and heavy favorite in the most recent Deseret Morning News poll, has raised $590,000 in his campaign for mayor, including $268,000 in the past two months, according to campaign finance reports released Friday.

"Every part of the campaign has been rolling along wonderfully since the primary," he said. "We've had great overall support, and our fund-raising has allowed us to do what we've wanted to do."

Buhler's campaign has taken in about $144,000 since Aug. 31, bringing his total to $465,000.

"I'm the underdog in this race, so it's always a little more challenging to raise money," he said. "I feel very gratified for the support I've received, and we're still raising money, of course."

Buhler said he estimated at the start of his campaign he'd spend between $400,000 and $500,000 on the race, putting him "right where we expected to be at this point."

The two-term Salt Lake City councilman has spent about $407,000 of those contributions, leaving him roughly $58,000 left to spend before the Nov. 6 election — about $20,000 less than Becker's remaining balance of $78,700.

Becker, the Democratic leader in the state House of Representatives, has spent about $511,000 so far in his bid to succeed Rocky Anderson as mayor.

On Thursday, Becker's campaign announced that the candidate and his volunteers had reached "virtually ever corner of the city."

Becker got the grass-roots effort started early, hitting the pavement six days a week since March 31.

"One of my most important goals in this campaign has been to talk face-to-face with voters in every single neighborhood of the city," he said. "I feel so strongly about it because Salt Lake City needs a mayor for the whole city, not just a few select neighborhoods."

Nearly 100 volunteers have joined Becker on his walks, combining for almost 700 hours of door-to-door campaigning, according to Becker's campaign. Most voting areas have been visited twice by the campaign, and a little more than half have been canvassed in three times.

Becker collected nearly 40 percent of the vote in the primary, and Buhler finished second with 28 percent.