![Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson speaks at an event while seeking a fourth term in office. [Nick Castele / ideastream]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/2c54f0d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/980x520+0+0/resize/840x446!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F9%2F01%2F0727jacksonspeech.jpg)
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson remains far ahead in campaign contributions, with less than two weeks to go before the primaries and a sizeable percentage of his contributions since the beginning of July came from people closely linked to Quicken Loans Arena.
According to his final campaign finance filing before the Sept. 12 th primary, Jackson raised about $200,000 in the past two months. At least $30,000 of that came from executives and a law firm linked to the Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s the same amount one of his opponents, Councilman Jeffrey Johnson, raised in total in the same time period.
The Quicken Loans CEO, its executive vice president, and the Cavs CEO all gave Jackson the individual contribution limit of $5,000 each. A Cleveland law firm which lists the Cavs as clients, Ulmer and Bern, gave $2,500 to Jackson.
The Cavaliers and Quicken Loans are both owned by Dan Gilbert and are at the center of a debate over whether to use public dollars to help pay for a renovation of the Q in Downtown Cleveland. The project has received support from Mayor Jackson, along with the rest of the region’s political leadership, and a campaign to withhold public support for the project recently pulled its petition for a referendum.
