Council Member Duchy Trachtenberg has reported $145,965.97 in cash on hand in her campaign account as of 10/17/10. No other council-at-large candidate reported having more than $8,000. This means that Trachtenberg left about half of her January warchest unspent during the campaign.
Trachtenberg lost the fourth at-large spot in the primary to George Leventhal by just 3,981 votes. Since countywide mailings to regularly voting Democrats cost about $30,000-40,000 depending on how the targeting is set, Trachtenberg could have afforded another 3-4 mass mailings. Could they have saved her and sent Leventhal home?
We’ll never know.