The largest donor to Sheriff Kevin Walsh’s re-election campaign is crossing party lines to give Walsh money.
Wayman Henson, owner of Henson’s Automotive in Syracuse, has given $6,900 to the Committee to Elect Kevin Walsh this year. Walsh is a Republican. Henson is a Democrat and ran for sheriff himself in 1983.
He’s contributing to Walsh’s campaign, Henson said, because he approves of the way Walsh is running the sheriff’s office. “They’re putting 100 percent into trying to do their job and so I don’t have a problem giving them money,” said Henson.
Walsh has received about $50,000 in donations this year, according to financial disclosure reports filed with the New York State Board of Elections. In campaign fundraising, Walsh leads his competitors by large margins. In comparison, Toby Shelley, the Working Families’ candidate, has raised $26,108 this year, about half of Walsh’s contributions. Joe Price, who’s on the Democratic Party line, sits far below with $3,285.
Both Shelley and Price are deputies in the sheriff’s office. Price beat Shelley in a Democratic primary to get the party’s nomination. But Price has since lost the party’s active support because of a controversy over comments posted under his username on www.Syracuse.com, the website of The Post-Standard.
The election is Nov. 2. Walsh is running for his fifth term as sheriff.
Here are highlights of Walsh’s fundraising from the New York State Board of Elections website:
- As of Oct. 22, Walsh has raised a total of $54,357.
- He has spent $26,682 — more than either Shelley or Price has raised.
- About $42,300 — or 78 percent — of Walsh’s donations come from individual donors.
The high percentage of individual donations reflects how contributors view the sheriff’s office, said Anthony Callisto, chief of the Department of Public Safety at Syracuse University and treasurer of Walsh’s reelection campaign. Most individual contributors give money to the candidate they think best addresses their safety concerns, he said.
“The folks are thinking about their personal public safety,” Callisto said.
Walsh holds a fundraiser every year on Superbowl Sunday for donors from previous years, Callisto said. In an election year, Callisto said, he also holds other fundraisers and attends many community events.
(Kathleen Ronayne is a junior majoring in newspaper journalism.)
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