The candidates for St. George mayor and city council filed their final campaign reports one week before the fast-approaching Nov. 2 election day. Here is a breakdown of where the candidates got their money and how they spent it.
These reports were the second ones filed by candidates, with the first set of reports filed before the Aug. 10 primary.
Donations:St. George municipal candidates’ campaign finance reports
In total just under $39,000 was raised for the mayoral race while around $37,000 was spent. For the city council race, a total of just over $50,000 was raised and just under $38,000 was spent.
You can look over the full campaign finance reports by following this link.
The Washington County Board of Realtors was the largest donor, giving a total of $16,491.47 to four different candidates across the mayoral and city council races. The only candidates that didn’t get a donation from this board were Greg Aldred and Michelle Tanner.
Other active donors in this race were Lowry Snow, a state representative who represents the 74th district and current city council member Bryan Smethurst, who both made donations to multiple candidates
The deadline to postmark ballots this year is Nov. 1, the day before the official Election Day on Nov. 2. But you can drop a ballot off at one of six county drop boxes on election day until 8 p.m. and your ballot will still be counted.
Ballot drop box locations
- The St. George Library (88 W. 100 S., St. George)
- Hurricane Library (36 S. 300 W., Hurricane)
- Santa Clara Library (1099 Lava Flow Dr., St. George)
- Washington Library (220 N. 300 E., Washington)
- The Washington County administrative building (197 East Tabernacle St., St. George).
In-person voting on election day is also an option for St. George residents at the Dixie Convention Center (1835 S. Convention Center Dr., St. George).
Mayoral Candidates
Michele Randall
Balance from primary report: $14,829.59
Total contributions: $29,729.59
Total expenses: $29,090.44
Ending balance: $639.15
Randall is the incumbent and outraised her opponent — councilman Jimmie Hughes — in both campaign finance reports. In the primary report, Randall had just under $27,000 to spend while Hughes had around $11,000. In the most recent reports, Randall reported she had just under $30,000 in spending cash, which means she raised almost $15,000 since the primary. Hughes had raised $8,990.36 since the primary.
Randall’s biggest campaign donor was G-Enterprises Inc. which gave $5,000. This company presents itself as G-Companies online and the company operates restaurants, a real estate portfolio and investments in publicly held securities and private companies, according to its website. The registered business agent for G-Enterprises is Doug Glendenning, according to the Utah Division of Corporations.
Her next biggest donation came from Justin Reber, who gave $2,500.
Randall also received $500 from Republican Women Lead, which is a political action committee that recruits, trains and provides financial services to Republican women in Utah, according to its website. This group made donations to all three women running in the St. George elections.
Other notable donations include $650 from state representative Snow and $1,500 from the Washington County Board of Realtors, whose CEO, Vardell Curtis, is running for a seat on the city council. Randall also got $500 from both Bright Morning Star Daycare and Metcalf Mortuary.
The biggest campaign expense for Randall was on direct mail; she spent $11,305.16 on services provided by Consolidated Direct Mail Inc. But this expense was just one of many for Randall’s advertising budget — in total her campaign spent just under $22,000 on direct mail, campaign signs and advertisements for radio and internet.
One of Randall’s biggest advertising expenses went to St. George News which got $2,000 from her campaign. Another $1,625 was given to Canyon Media which owns St. George News and multiple local radio channels. Randall also spent $1,995 on ads from Cherry Creek Media, which owns six radio stations.
Randall also donated $1,000 of her campaign cash to the Major Brent Taylor Foundation, which was set up after Major Brent Taylor was killed in Afghanistan in 2018.
Jimmie Hughes
Balance from primary report: $1,002.90
Total contributions: $8,900.36
Total expenses: $8,129.09
Ending balance: $771.27
Hughes has been on the city council since 2011 and his run for mayor has been largely self-funded, although he’s received some outside donations. In the most recent finance report, Hughes gave his campaign $3,500, which is enough to make him the biggest donor for his own campaign. In his primary finance report, Hughes indicated he gave $3,835.22 of his money to his campaign and received another $4,500 from a business he runs — Hughes Mortuary.
Other large donors included the Washington County Board of Realtors, which gave $1,500 to Hughes — the same amount of cash this board donated to his competitor. And Feller Enterprises gave $2,000, which was the largest donation in Hughes’ current finance report.
Feller Enterprises is a construction company that specializes in “commercial and site development projects,” according to its website. The registered agent for Feller Enterprises is Tyson Feller, according to the Utah Division of Corporations.
Rick Erickson, who came up just short of a city council seat in both the August primary and when a new city council member was being appointed in January, donated $177.46 to Hughes.
Hughes had a short list of expenses, only six items long, but they were expensive items with only two costing less than $1,000.
The biggest expense for Hughes was for radio and internet ads. He gave $4,305 to Canyon Media companies, with $2,200 going directly to St. George News while the rest went to Canyon Media.
Hughes, like Randall, invested in direct mail and campaign signs. He spent $1,000 on Valpak mail services and about $633.20 on signs from Steamroller Copies.
St. George City Council Candidates
Vardell Curtis
Balance from primary report: $5,619.14
Total contributions: $28,592.40
Total expenses: $22,686.74
Ending balance: $11,524.80
Curtis is the only incumbent in the city council race that made it past the August primary, although he is seeking his first elected term as he was appointed to his seat on the council in January. Curtis raised $28,592.40, the most money amongst the city council candidates.
The biggest donor group for Curtis was realtor groups that gave him around $15,500 total. Curtis got just under $10,500 from the Washington County Board of Realtors — Curtis is the CEO for this organization — and another $5,000 from the Utah Association of Realtors.
Curtis also got $1,000 from the Southern Utah Home Builders Association. He also got $1,000 from Payback65 which the report indicates is affiliated with John Ames, a local real estate agent.
Another real-estate-focused business, Tech Ridge LLC — the group behind the 180-acre mixed-use development on the site of the former St. George airport — donated $4,000 to Curtis. Isaac Barlow is the listed business agent for this LLC, according to the Utah Division of Corporations. During the August primary, this LLC donated $2,000 to fellow city council appointee Bryan Smethurst but he lost in the primary.
Even though Smethurst lost he’s been somewhat active since the primary since he donated to multiple city council candidates, including $1,000 he donated to Curtis. Fellow city council candidate Natalie Larsen also got $1,000 from Smethurst.
Other notable southern Utah politicians also donated to Curtis, including state senator Don Ipson who gave $1,000, and state Rep. Snow who donated $350.
Curtis’s largest expense was on direct mail, on which he dropped $10,634.40 on services provided by Consolidated Direct Mail. Other expenses over $1,000 focused on advertisements and marketing.
Curtis focused on radio advertisements, sending $4,000 each to Cherry Creek Media and Canyon Media. Another $500 was sent to St. George News. But he also spent on digital ads and spent $1,000 on Facebook and Instagram.
But the campaign sign expense was able to be under $1,000 for Curtis, who only spent close to $993 on Steamroller Copies. In the primary, signage was Curtis’ biggest expense at around $1,316.
Greg Aldred
Balance from primary report: $2.78
Total contributions: $2,752.70
Total expenses: $2,642.52
Ending balance: $110.26
Aldred had the least money to spend out of all the city council candidates. He was the only one to raise less than $5,000. Most of his campaign cash came from individuals donating but his campaign was infused with one large donation from a political action committee.
That committee is the Liberty Action Coalition — a politically active right-wing group — which gave $1,500 to Aldred. The next biggest contribution Aldred got was $300 from Sandra Olson.
Aldred’s biggest expense was $700, which bought services from Valpak and was used on direct mail. Among his other expenses was $450 on signs from Steamroller Copies, $1,348 on media advertisements. That $1,348 went to three different media companies, including $520 to Canyon Media, $486 to Cherry Creek Media and $342 to Red Rock Media.
Natalie Larsen
Balance from primary report: $675.6
Total contributions: $13,249.07
Total expenses: $10,069.79
Ending balance: $3,854.94
Larsen raised and spent the second most amount of money among the city council candidates, raising over $13,000 and spending over $10,000.
Larsen’s biggest donor was the Washington County Board of Realtors, which gave her a $2,999.07 donation. Larsen then used that money on the Utah Association of Realtors, who connected Larsen with a vendor that provided her direct mail services, according to Larsen.
Her next biggest expense was $2,249.69 that went to Steamroller Copies for signs.
One of the largest chunks of cash used by Larsen’s campaign was advertisements on the radio and internet. She spent $1,000 on services from St. George News and another $429 went to Canyon Media. But Larsen didn’t spend money on just one set of radio ads — she also spent another $1,197 on services provided by Cherry Creek Media. Larsen also purchased $120 worth of Facebook ads.
The second-biggest donor for Larsen is G-Enterprises, which gave $2,500. As previously mentioned in this article, this company presents itself as G-Companies online and the company operates restaurants, a real estate portfolio and investments in publicly held securities and private companies, according to its website.
Larsen received $250 from Republican Women Lead, a political action committee that recruits, trains and provides financial services to republican women in Utah. This was least amount given to any candidate from this group in the St. George elections.
Other notable contributions include $300 from state Rep. Snow and $1,000 from Smethurst, the sitting member of the city council.
Riverside Express is another business that donated to Larsen and gave $500. this company conducts business as Dino Dash Car Wash and the registered business agent is Randy Simonsen, according to the Utah Division of Corporations.
Michelle Tanner
Balance from primary report: $2,475.01
Total contributions: $5,935
Total expenses: $2,566.55
Ending balance: $5,843
Tanner is the only candidate in the St. George elections to get donations from two different political action committees: The Liberty Action Coalition and Republican Woman Lead. These donations made up 23.6% of her contributions, with the Liberty Action Coalition giving $1,000 and Republican Woman Lead giving $400.
The rest of Tanner’s donors were mostly individuals although a few businesses did donate to her campaign. Ducimus Digital Solutions, a company based in Vernal, Utah that helps “pro-liberty” businesses, provided an $805 in-kind contribution — a contribution that covers a service rather than a monetary donation — for Tanner’s campaign website.
The other business that contributed to Tanner is The Grip Fitness which is a gym that is known for being a training center for contestants on the TV show “American Ninja Warrior.” The Grip donated $600 to Tanner.
Tanner’s biggest campaign expense was $700 of mail services provided by Valpak. Her next biggest expense was $549.05 on campaign signs from Rainbow Sign & Banner.
The advertising budget for Tanner was more modest than other candidates, spending $500 on the Canyon Media Group and $400 on Green Pages / Dixie Direct.
Sean Hemmersmeier covers local government, growth and development in Southwestern Utah. Follow on Twitter @seanhemmers34. Our work depends on subscribers so if you want more coverage on these issues you can subscribe here: .thespectrum.com/subscribe.
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