Who’s funding Nick Ferrante’s campaign?

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There’s no doubt that Nick Ferrante’s campaign for mayor of Peachtree City has catalyzed a conversation about the role of our city government, and the relationship between our non-partisan local elections and the national political landscape.

I want to dive into a topic that’s received some scrutiny in this paper and on social media: How is Nick funding his campaign?

Back in March, Nick shared that he was endorsed by Run For Something, an organization that encourages younger progressive citizens to, well, run for something. Civic participation among young voters is traditionally low. Whether you agree or disagree with their political stance, I hope we can agree that citizens participating in our democracy is positive for our country and our community.

Beyond that, there’s been conjecture that Run For Something is directly or indirectly funding Nick’s campaign; and that Nick has received large campaign contributions from national political organizations. Both are untrue.

In a statement provided on October 21st, Run for Something stated “Run for Something has not provided Nick Ferrante or his campaign with any financial support, nor does Run for Something operate independent expenditure campaigns.”

Furthermore, an analysis of itemized contributions on Nick’s Campaign Contribution Disclosure Reports (CCDR) through October 25th shows that 53% of that funding comes from within Peachtree City, 95% from within Fayette Country, and 100% from within the State of Georgia.

Another candidate running for mayor stated categorically that “The simple fact is unless you spend a wad of personal money or have special-interest backers, you’re going to go nowhere near $2500.” The support for Nick’s campaign proves that this is also untrue. (Yes, my wife and I have contributed to Nick’s campaign; no, we’re not special interest backers.)

The CCDR itemizes contributions above $100, so I asked Nick’s team how many people have contributed at any level: Over 300 people contributed to Nick’s campaign online, and at least 200 more have supported the campaign by purchasing signs and merchandise. The momentum and the support is real.

And so the truth is more inspiring: Nick’s campaign is funded by citizens and neighbors who believe it is time for fresh leadership in Peachtree City.

Andy Powell

Peachtree City, Ga.

41 COMMENTS

  1. Andy Powell, you are the founder of a company that has 60 million dollars per year in revenue. Are you willing to follow Dan Price and pay your workers a minimum of $70k per year?

    You both share the same political views, I would hope you share the same values in practice.

      • Create a 6 figure salary (with benefits) bureaucrat position to “market” Peachtree city. Come on, who’s paying for the eventual pension of this employee? I’d rather see more support for our police and fire department, noting that DUI’s and other drug seizures are up more than 100%

        But…feel the magic! It will give you comfort.

          • Nick said he was going to fund a bureaucrat marketing department (hard to dissolve) for $80k.

            Add in benefits and pension obligations to the citizens and this will be well over 100k.

            But nick wants less regulation and smaller government? Please tell me more

          • Nick cannot do it by state law. We already have the CVB which does that function. We need our development authority back to do economic development, which Nick also cannot do and it also does that function. City government is not allowed to do that function, which is why authorities exist.

    • I disagree that I’ve set up a straw man.

      While I didn’t cite every accusation or insinuation that’s been made, here are some quotes you can find in the op-eds and comments in this paper. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it shows that I haven’t simply invented the concerns that I addressed in the article:

      Cal Beverly: “Instead, they [PACS] spend unknown buckets of money on behalf of the candidate” and “Ferrante’s ‘Magic Bubble’ campaign materials don’t disclose this close political and financial affiliation.” (The political affiliation was disclosed; the lack of financial affiliation is what’s addressed in the article.)

      Don Haddix: “The simple fact is unless you spend a wad of personal money or have special-interest backers, you’re going to go nowhere near $2500.”

      Skepticism is healthy, and I hope the facts are helpful.

      • To me, the only thing that matters here in this election is which candidate is most qualified to be mayor, based on the totality of their body of work. To me, that is Eric and Kim, certainly not Nick. Nick is uniquely unqualified, about as unqualified as one could imagine. He grew up in PTC, likes magic and goodness and says we can do better. Well, okey dokey then.

          • AndyP, I certainly have no problem with you supporting Nick. I am certainly anxious to see how this all comes out. I still think personally Nick is just running on what he and many interprets as this new woke momentum in America. I cannot imagine a conservative candidate with no qualifications to speak of being able to get any traction at all. We will certainly see how much traction Nick has gotten. Nick is certainly our only woke candidate in a large pool of candidates. This on paper appears to bode well for him.

          • This would be a fascinating conversation over coffee or a beer (for real, my contact info is easy enough to find). To me, it feels possible that if a young conservative candidate for mayor had run a campaign with the same energy and sustained effort, they would have had the opportunity to win the election.

          • Andy, I certainly would have no problem meeting you in person. You seem way more reasonable than say Lever Up. I will have to respectfully disagree, even though this is obviously all speculative, about your contention about a young conservative candidate, energized, with no particular qualifications being to get traction vs an Eric or Kim.

  6. The local yokels don’t know what they want. They’re happy to whine and complain that issues aren’t being taken care of and then they whine and complain when someone says they want to do something about it. If you’re happy with the balding retreads of PTC, by all means vote for one of them. If you’d like to see someone with other good ideas – vote for Ferrante.

    • First of all, I am not balding. Second, Nick has no economic development plan, but he has plenty of spending proposals.

      Economic development means producing products within the city to sell outside the city to bring money into the city. Retail brings in products from outside the city to sell within the city and then send the revenues outside the city. That is why we have had so many tax increases because mayor and council has been totally reliant on retail.

      Finally, he does not even know how council works.

      • Don, you are not well versed in business. You’re spouting a rather simplistic statement that’s less than half true.

        Did you notice that neither Nick nor Kim continually put down the other candidates? I’m sure they’ve made some comments, here and there, but between you and the other retreads – that’s all we see from you. Then we have Steve Brown, another retread babbling his nonsense all over the place. Do you all ever wonder why you’re on the sidelines? Do you all ever wonder why you’re on the outside looking in? The citizens gave you retreads a chance. They didn’t like what they saw – if they had, you’d still be around and have influence.

      • Changing the city code to allow for Arts and Entertainment districts so that businesses can expand their operations to support more customer demand is not an economic plan?

        Everyone is out here accusing Nick of being some kind of commie pinko, yet he’s the only one who is talking about reducing the size, scope, and reach of government in order to unleash the economic potential of local businesses.