Take a look at Denton council candidates’ latest campaign finance reports ahead of election day

With Saturday’s election almost here, a majority of Denton City Council candidates’ final pre-election campaign finance reports were filed Friday, showcasing more out-of-town developer donations, support from residents and some issues with reports.

Similar to previous years, this election has shown signs of partisanship even though municipal elections in Texas are meant to be nonpartisan. Saturday’s vote could tilt the council to a conservative majority, depending on the outcome of the Place 5 and Place 6 races.

One question facing voters is whether they feel that their elected officials should listen to the majority of their constituents when it comes to statewide and national issues, such as an abortion rights resolution, or ignore the majority when they vote to implement issues on the ballot such as marijuana reform.

Here’s a look at candidates’ reports from the period up to the eighth day before the election.

Mayoral race

Mayor Gerard Hudspeth has been discussing his opposition to marijuana reform on the campaign trail, in part due to the state filing a lawsuit against Denton over the city’s marijuana ordinance, which has never been fully enforced.

Hudspeth reported maintaining total political contributions of $21,847.54 after expenditures on his Jan. 1-March 25 report.

On his most recent report, for March 26-April 24, Hudspeth showed $18,715 in total political contributions and $3,443.43 in expenditures and $887.03 in expenditures not itemized. He reported $37,118.61 as maintained as of the last day of the reporting period.

Some of Hudspeth’s donations include $2,000 from Community Leaders of America; an additional $2,000 from former Denton County Judge Kirk Wilson, who works with Centurion American, a major Dallas developer; and $500 from the Denton County Republican Lincoln Cabinet PAC.

Mayoral candidate Lucas Wedgeworth, who couldn’t be reached for comment by Thursday, recently filed both his campaign finance reports for the 30th day and eighth day before the election, but reported only $20 in total political contributions.

Hudspeth’s other challenger, Stephen Dillenberg, didn’t file a campaign finance report Friday. He also didn’t file a report in early April.

Dillenberg couldn’t be reached for comment by Thursday.

No council members contributed to Hudspeth’s campaign.

The lack of a strong challenger could explain Hudspeth’s lack of political expenditures this election season compared to two years ago, when he faced council member Paul Meltzer in the race for mayor.

In 2022, Hudspeth raised and spent about $100,000 on his race, according to campaign finance reports.

This year, Hudspeth has raised about $50,000 and spent about $16,800 so far.

Place 6

In the race for at-large Place 6, Jill Jester has outraised and outspent her opponent, Lilyan Prado Carrillo, so far this election season.

Jester reported $7,985.52 in total political contributions maintained on her report for Feb. 2-March 25.

According to the latest report for March 26-April 26, Jester reported $22,016 in total political contributions and $54,841.61 in expenditures with a principal amount of loans at $35,000 during the filing period. She had $24,840.09 in total political contributions maintained as of the last day of the reporting period.

Most of Jester’s donors are from Denton, with others from the surrounding towns, such as Sanger, Corinth and Argyle. The Denton County Republican Lincoln Cabinet donated $500, as did the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 88 in Lake Dallas, which contributed $100.

City Council member Joe Holland also donated to Jester’s campaign.

Shortly before early voting kicked off, Jester was targeted as a “MAGA extremist” by Common Sense Denton County PAC that had listed council member Meltzer’s business office address until April 15, when the PAC’s address was changed, according to the Texas Ethics Commission.

“The anonymous senders are mischaracterizing me based on donations I made to one or more local candidates for state government over the past 10 years,” Jester wrote in an email to the Record-Chronicle. “I donated to those [conservative] candidates despite my disagreement with some of their stances because I thought they would be the most responsive to Denton.

“To label reasonable, open-minded people on either side of our political debates as ‘extremists’ is dishonest and reduces our politics to name-calling.”

Several posts last month on the Denton County Republicans Facebook group — an open group that notes that it “does not reflect opinions of the Denton County Republican Party” — list Jester as one of the “conservative candidates for local elections on May 4th.” Hudspeth and Erica Garland, the Place 5 candidate, are also listed.

An official flyer from the county GOP recommends candidates in multiple local elections — but none of them are Denton City Council candidates.

In an April 17 message, Meltzer said he was involved with the Common Sense Denton County PAC when he was not on the City Council “because I was interested in finding and supporting good candidates (not realizing at the time that I would become one again myself) and frankly had no idea they used my house’s address.”

“I’m not happy about it,” Meltzer said. “I gave directly to candidates I support.”

Prado Carrillo is one of those candidates who received Meltzer’s support on the earlier campaign finance report. She also received an earlier donation from council member Brian Beck and has been recommended by the local Democratic Party.

In her last report in early April, Prado Carrillo showed $12,200.10 in total political contributions maintained.

Prado Carrillo reported $2,397.07 in contributions and $11,669.76 in expenditures during March 26-April 24. She showed $4,492.45 maintained.

“We must be doing a good job with this campaign!” Prado Carrillo wrote in an early Thursday morning email in response to how much her opponent has spent. “We, on the other hand, have enjoyed knocking on doors, meeting lots of great people, having lots of great conversations and learning what Denton needs from our residents.

“Campaigning and serving has to be about 2-way conversations. When we spend a lot of money on advertising alone, it becomes a one-way conversation. People may learn a little bit about us, but we aren’t learning about people and that’s just not good practice when you are seeking to serve.”

Place 5

Incumbent Brandon Chase McGee, who has also been recommended by the local Democratic Party, has had a tough go-round this election season in his battle to defend his at-large seat from his challenger, Erica Garland.

McGee made a claim about H-E-B’s 10-year delayed arrival to Denton at a late March candidate forum that was refuted by the grocery retailer’s spokesperson.

But he has also been having issues with his campaign finance reports.

In his previous report, for Jan. 1-March 25, McGee reported that he had $23,325.39 in total political contributions maintained (or on hand) as of the last day of the reporting period.

McGee’s report for March 26-April 26 shows $6,602.40 in total contributions and $9,940.67 in political expenditures during this filing period, leaving $13,020.94 in total contributions maintained.

If you add together the total contributions from the two reports ($29,927.79) and subtract the latest political expenditures ($9,940.67) and total contributions maintained ($13,020.94), that appears to leave $6,966.18 unaccounted for in the latest report.

However, McGee did file an amendment to his 30-day report on April 9. He listed that it contained 17 pages — but only one page was uploaded online and it doesn’t list any numbers.

“The cash on hand number is the money in the bank account at 11:59pm the final day of the reporting period. This may include checks that haven’t been cashed yet from expenses or lack contributions that haven’t been processed into the bank account. This is standard operating procedure for campaign reports,” McGee said in a Wednesday evening email.

“We did have a missing expenditure on the 30-day report, but that is being rectified and a corrected report is being submitted,” McGee added.

That report wasn’t available online by the end of the day Thursday.

Three council members have supported McGee’s campaign — Beck, Meltzer and Vicki Byrd.

Similar to McGee, Garland has also accepted thousands in donations from developers and development PACs. She also filed an amended eight-day report Wednesday to adjust for the filing period from April 3-24 and contributions and expenditures associated with it.

Garland showed $1,809.20 in total political contributions maintained on her Jan. 1-April 2 report.

In the amended April report, Garland reported $15,233.36 in total contributions and $2,002.96 in expenditures, leaving $15,093.60 in total contributions maintained.

Some of Garland’s other donations include $3,000 from the Denton County Republican Lincoln Cabinet and $1,500 from the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas.

Council member Chris Watts also donated to her campaign.