LEWISTON — Campaign finance reports filed with the city 11 days before Tuesday’s election show a who’s who of Lewiston Democrats donating to Mayor-elect Mark Cayer’s campaign, along with a notable $50 donation from former Mayor Robert Macdonald, a staunch Republican.

Tim Lajoie, left, and Mark Cayer, right, were joking together and greeting voters at Longley Elementary School on Tuesday morning. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal Buy this Photo

Also notable is the reduced spending by candidates compared to two previous mayoral races.

Cayer’s campaign cash contributions totaled $5,365, with expenditures for signs, advertising and other campaign costs totaling $4,556, according to a campaign finance report filed with the city Oct. 25.

Donors included fellow candidates seeking election, including Stephanie Gelinas, who won the Ward 7 City Council seat by five votes over incumbent Mike Marcotte. That race is now the subject of a recount, scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 14.

Other donors included School Committee incumbent Bruce Damon who was re-elected in Ward 1, former Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council President Lucien Gosselin, former legislator Elaine Makas and current Mayor Kristen Cloutier, who also represents Lewiston’s District 60 in the Maine House of Representatives.

Contributions made to Republican mayoral candidate Timothy Lajoie were less, as was his campaign spending. According to Lajoie’s campaign finance report, he raised $3,586 as of Oct. 25 and had spent $2,404.

Contributions included 21 individual donors who contributed $50 or less, and are not required to be named on the campaign finance report. Also contributing were Planning Board member Benjamin Martin and Norm Boulay, owner of Collette’s Donut Shoppe and Lajoie’s largest contributor.

Spending in the 2019 race is a marked reduction from the 2017 mayoral race when Democratic candidate Ben Chin outspent all other candidates, spending $10,384 while raising $4,770 during the final quarter of the campaign. He also rolled over about $14,221 from his previous 2015 campaign, a campaign during which he raised a staggering $90,000 in donations, with just $10,000 coming from within Lewiston.

In the months leading up to that 2017 race, candidate Cayer raised $9,642 and spent $4,283. Most of those expenses went toward his website, campaign signs and advertisements.

And, candidate Shane Bouchard, who self-funded his campaign and ultimately won the election, reported expenditures of $4,351, mostly for campaign signs and advertisements in 2017.

In 2015, during what was a five-way mayoral race, Chin raised $63,329 in donations and spent $37,380 in the months leading up to the Nov. 3 ballot, compared to $1,562 contributions for incumbent Macdonald.

While Chin earned the most votes on Nov. 3, 2015, it wasn’t enough to reach the required majority vote, and a runoff between Chin and Macdonald was held Dec. 8, 2015.

During the month between the general and special elections, Chin continued to raise money, eventually pulling in nearly $90,000 over the full period of his campaign. At the time, Macdonald said he would stop raising funds because he had enough to fund his continued campaigning until Dec. 8, 2015.

Macdonald won the 2015 election by more than 500 votes, elected to his third term in office.