Hope raises twice as much in campaign contributions as Baughn

CLINTON—Oak Ridge City Council member Chuck Hope has raised twice as much in campaign contributions since April as his opponent, Trina Baughn, according to reports filed this month.

Hope, appointed to Council last summer after Tom Hayes resigned in June 2011, raised $3,669 in campaign contributions between April 1 and July 23.

Meanwhile, Baughn raised $1,675.

Hope, a business owner, has also loaned his campaign $2,000, and Baughn has loaned hers $1,700.

Baughn, a communications professional, has outspent Hope. She’s had expenditures of $4,321, as well as a $400 loan payment.

Hope has spent $3,344, and he has an outstanding $533 obligation for postage and sign posts he paid for with his own debit card.

Hope listed six donations of $100 or more—they’re known as itemized contributions—from Mark Harvey, Donna Reat, John Bolling, Robert Wilkinson, John Chilton, and Kevin and Diana Homan.

Baughn listed one donation of $100 or more from Sam Hopwood.

Her top expenses were $1,302 to Access Solutions of Knoxville for yard signs and balloons, $720 to the Oak Ridge Observer for advertising, and $405 to Precision Printing for printing of “push cards.”

Hope listed expenses of $2,565 to Victory Store of Davenport, Iowa, for advertising and $470 to The Oak Ridger, also for advertising.

It’s the first race for elected office for both candidates. They’re running in a nonpartisan race for a special three-month term on the Oak Ridge City Council, the city’s seven-member legislative body.

The winner of Thursday’s election will serve through the regular Nov. 6 City Council election, when Hayes’ term expires.

The winner of that election will then serve a regular four-year term.