Carlee Alm-Labar holds a significant fundraising lead over her opponents running to be Lafayette's next mayor-president, according to disclosures released Thursday.

The five candidates for mayor-president — Alm-Labar, Josh Guillory, Nancy Marcotte, Simone Champagne and Carlos Harvin were required to file their first campaign finance disclosures for this year's election Thursday.

Alm-LaBar, who registered as a no-party voter and was first to announce her candidacy early this spring, has raised $270,000 in donations in her six-month campaign with an average donation amount of about $513.

Republican Simone Champagne, a former state legislator and current chief administrative officer of Youngsville, has raised about $44,000, with an average donation of about $960. Republican Josh Guillory, a local attorney, has collected about $41,000 since announcing plans to run for the office in April, averaging about $470 per donation.

Reports from Democrat Carlos Harvin, a minister, and Republican Nancy Marcotte, a local realtor, were not available Thursday from the state board of ethics.

Alm-LaBar's campaign has received about $12,000 from donors that previously gave to current Mayor-President Joel Robideaux and $40,000 from donors to former Lafayette Chief Administrative Officer Dee Stanley, who ran against Robideaux after serving under Mayor-President Joey Durel, who left office in 2015.

Alm-LaBar came to Lafayette for non-profit education work after college and volunteered with what was then the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. From there, Alm-LaBar joined the Durel administration as an assistant to the mayor handling communications and was eventually appointed chief development officer by Durel. Robideaux made Alm-LaBar his director of development and planning after taking office in 2016, and she resigned to work for Southern Lifestyles Development in 2018, which she left this summer to campaign full-time.

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Sixty-two of Alm-Labar's donors, which number about 450, have already reached their donation limit for the primary election period. They are primarily lawyers, developers and contractors, including Assistant City-Parish Attorney Mike Hebert and his firm, City-Parish Attorney Steve Oats and his partner Lawrence Marino.

Big donors also included many of the people and agencies that Alm-Labar worked for in development and real estate after leaving Lafayette Consolidated Government, like Bob Daigle and Rodney Savoy, who run Southern Lifestyles Development, and several of the companies they control.

Alm-LaBar's campaign also received the max contribution from members of the group re-developing the old courthouse complex downtown, including Jim Poche and his son Bryant, as well as E.J. Krampe & Associates.

Tyron Picard, founder of The Picard Group, which supported Robideaux and represented Jim Bernhard and Bernhard Capital Partners during the firm's attempt to take over management of LUS, also donated the maximum amount of $2,500 to Alm-LaBar's campaign.

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Alm-LaBar defended the donations by saying that she decided to run for office before knowing she would be able to find so much fundraising support.

"There are a lot of folks who some may say have donated to may campaign as a sign of maybe some lack of independence or whatever negative thing they want to ascribe to it," she said. "Ultimately, I think that deciding to run for the office in the first place was a show of independence and determination that I think should speak to my ability to do what’s right for the city and parish of Lafayette regardless of other influences."

Guillory had just two donors contribute the maximum amount to his campaign; William E. Logan III of Lafayette and L. Clayton Burgess, a Lafayette attorney.

Champagne had 11 donors max out their contributions for the primary election period, including Royal Engineering of New Orleans and both Lane Grigsby, founder of Cajun Industries, and his wife Bobbi, both of Baton Rouge, as well as Gordon's Disposal and Landfill of New Iberia.

Champagne also received maximum donations locally from commercial realtor Mark Tolson's company, both Will and Sandra Mills of MPW Properties, Giles Automotive owner Bob Giles, attorney and Citizens for a New Louisiana co-director W. Ross Little.

Little was listed in recent incorporation documents for Citizens for a New Louisiana, which were published by The Current on Wednesday in the outlet's revelation that the state Board of Ethics is investigating the group and its most public leader Michael Lunsford.

Champagne did not respond to requests for comment before press time.

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Alm-Labar also loaned her campaign $50,000 of personal money, likely indicating her campaign expects to raise significantly more money in the final weeks before the Oct. 12 election.

Champagne loaned her own campaign $10,000, and Guillory, who loaned his 2018 congressional campaign more than $100,000, hasn't made any loans to his current campaign.

Alm-LaBar's massive war chest exceeds what Robideaux raised in a similar time frame in 2015. Robideaux raised about $220,000 and Dee Stanley, who ran against Robideaux after serving under Durel, raised around $292,000 at 30 days before the October primary.

Guillory and Champagne collected very little money from former donors to either Robideaux or Stanley. Guillory received $3,125 from former Robideaux donors and $2,250 from former Stanley donors, and Champagne received a $500 donation from former Robideaux donor and contractor Fernand Privat, and donations from former Stanley donors Johnny Thibodeaux, the current mayor of Duson, for $500 and Bob Giles, owner of the Giles Automotive car dealerships, for $2,500.

Money from outside Lafayette is playing a somewhat small role in the race for mayor-president, with Champagne leading the candidates in the ratio of Lafayette Parish versus outside area donations. About 28.5% of Champagne's war chest, or $12,600, so far has come from outside Lafayette Parish, with about $5,100 coming from Baton Rouge and another $2,500 from her only out of state donation, a single donation from oilman Frank Harrison III of Houston.

Guillory was next in percentage of outside money with 15.6%, or $6,402 of his $41,000 in donations, coming from out of town. Guillory received $1,000 donations from Newport Beach, California; Austin, Texas; Napoleonville; Rayne and New Iberia.

Alm-LaBar had the lowest percentage of outside funds at 7.6%, but also raised the greatest total amount at $20,555. Three contributions from New Orleans made the city her largest source of outside funds at $2,800, followed by two donations from Naples, Florida, and a $2,500 donation from Metairie. Baton Rouge accounted for five of Alm-LaBars donations, totaling $1,025.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported Alm-LaBar’s employment history. Alm-LaBar worked for non-profit groups while volunteering with the former Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. She was not employed by the chamber.”

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