Who Funded the School Committee Candidates?

The final set of campaign finance documents have been released for the North Andover 2013 local election.

The only competitive race was for the School Committee seat. And residents have been asking who funded the candidates in that race. One theory seems to be that because discussion of the race took a partisan tone -- conservatives vocally supporting Mezzina and liberals and local education establishment rallying behind Warren -- then that would show in rapid fundraising from political wings in the lead-up to the election.

Well, that doesn't seem to be the case. At least not as much as people may think.

Mark Mezzina's biggest campaign donation -- if you don't count the $3,000 campaign loan -- was $500 from Peter Mezzina. A few of his donations came from Connecticut, and a few came from North Andover. And in the last phase of the filings, he received only $175.

Zora Warren's biggest campaig donor was Jim Warren, who gave $200. In the first phase of the election reports, she received $2874,84. In the latest report (the last week of the campaign) she only received $500. Warren received smaller donations from School Committee members Chris Allen and Stan Limpert early in the campaign.

Mezzina's campaign gathered a lot of money early on -- almost $5,700 in the first few weeks of the race -- but that includes the $3,000 loan Mezzina made to his campaign on March 11, which reports list as an outstanding liability after the election.

"The loan was just a supplement to the money I raised, to help pay for mailers and such," Mezzina said. "I have not yet paid it back, I will probably do so over the next year or two."

One interesting part of the filings: the Democratic and Republican town committee scholarship fundraisers. Both candidates spoke at each event, and both candidates gave money to each party committee. But there was a gap. Warren gave $350 to the Democratic Town Committee and $225 to the Republican Town Committee. Mezzina gave $175 to the Democratic Town Committee and $150 to the Republican Town Committee.

The campaign finance documents for each candidate can be viewed on the town website.