But hours after the shock results of the November 3 ballot — in which Russell doubled up Sarnoff's tally and forced a runoff — Russell says his phone started ringing off the hook, with big-money donors suddenly eager to back him.
In fact, Russell's campaign says, he doubled his whole campaign haul in just
"It started to hurt my stomach," Russell tells New Times. "It made me realize that this is business as usual in Miami politics."
Russell says he officially stopped taking donations last week, and now he's returning the bulk of that cash to those donors. Final campaign reports won't be submitted to the city until 5 p.m. today, but Russell's campaign says the reports will show he's giving $77,650 back to the donors who came out of the woodwork after he vanquished Sarnoff.
(The campaign's election communications organization, Miami Can Do Better, has already submitted its final report, showing it raised $22,000 after the election; the rest of the funds come from Russell's campaign, which hasn't submitted paperwork yet.)
"I don't want to give even the perception of
True, it's a lot easier to give all of that money back knowing Russell doesn't have an actual campaign to run leading up to the November 17 runoff. Although the city will still hold the election, it won't count any votes toward Sarnoff, who withdrew last week.
But Russell points out he could have rolled those funds into a PAC or looked into other options for carrying the donations to another campaign down the road.
"I want voters to know we're serious about changing the way this district operates," he says.
