Watson sets fundraising record with $995K

Today is the first campaign finance reporting deadline for candidates running to serve on Austin City Council. On Thursday, mayoral candidate Kirk Watson was ready with the announcement that his campaign had raised a record-breaking $995,000 since declaring his intention to run in late February. The record was previously held by Mayor Steve Adler’s 2014 campaign, which raised an unprecedented total of about $366,000 during the first reporting period. (Adler’s 2014 campaign went on to raise more than $1.5 million.) Meanwhile, conservative challenger Jennifer Virden reported raising $84,506.54 since the start of this year and loaning her campaign $300,000. As of Thursday night, no other mayoral candidates had filed their paperwork on the city website. On Monday, we’ll break down the money raised in the races for mayor and districts 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9.