D7 candidate Siegel touts his cash haul

City Council District 7 candidate Mike Siegel has announced that his campaign has more cash on hand than all the other D7 candidates combined. He reported his cash on hand at $43,453.17 in his filing on Monday. The D7 race is crowded, with six candidates vying for the spot Council Member Leslie Pool is vacating. When the Austin Monitor looked at the reports, it was easy to see that none of the other candidates except Gary Bledsoe had close to Siegel’s cash. However, Bledsoe reported his total contributions maintained at $48,158.79, so we asked Siegel how he arrived at his conclusion. He pointed out that Bledsoe also reported $26,704.51 in unpaid incurred obligations. Therefore, Siegel explained, in order to see who really has the most money to spend, he subtracted the amount of unpaid incurred obligations from what Bledsoe reported as his bottom line. Bledsoe listed his unpaid obligations as about $21,526 to Y Strategy LLC, and $5,177 to CheckMark Typesetting for a total of more than $26,703. None of the other candidates in this race reported any unpaid obligations. Therefore, using that method to calculate how much Bledsoe still has to spend, that figure is closer to $21,454. So, apparently, Siegel’s brag is legitimate.