regina mayor won 2024 election with $12k campaign: expense reports
it appears that mayor chad bachynksi did indeed run a "true grassroots, word-of-mouth campaign" based on his expense disclosure reports.
4 minute read
mayor-elect chad bachynski celebrates after receiving the news that he won the 2024 mayoral race on nov. 13, 2024 in regina.
kayle neis
/
regina leader-post
campaign spending in regina’s 2024 municipal election took a bit of a turn from previous years, as the city’s new mayor proved it doesn’t take tens of thousands of dollars to win the top seat in city hall.
election reports were released by the city this week, offering a peek into the spending habits of 61 out of 63 candidates who ran for office on nov. 13.
per the regina municipal election expenses bylaw, all candidates are required to report their campaign expenses and contributions within 90 days of the election to prove they followed the rules on accepting donations and spending caps for this election cycle.
city council candidates were allowed to spend $12,236 and must disclose contributions made to their campaigns totalling more than $200. mayoral hopefuls could allocate up to $73,859 and are required to report contributions more than $500.
those disclosure reports are set to come before the new city council on wednesday for official filing.
here’s an early look at what’s contained within them:
2025 mayor’s race not about cash
political newcomer chad bachynski’s successful campaign against incumbent sandra masters and former city councillor lori bresciani cost him $12,088, the lowest spent by a winning mayoral candidate since at least 2009.
advertisement
masters comparatively spent $61,798 on a third-place finish, which was less than the $68,289 she put into her first and ultimately successful bid for election in 2020.
bresciani spent $24,208 en route to placing second, per her disclosure form, which named no donations from developers as promised during her campaign. but she did list personal donations from a director of a real estate fund as well as an engineering consultant firm.
bill pratt, who finished fourth out of 11 candidates, spent a total of $43,100, including $12,927 for an office space downtown.
nathaniel hewton, kevin kardash and bob pearce reported zero expenses and zero donations in their forms.
both masters and bresciani’s budgets hedged closer to the realm of typical mayoral campaigns seen in regina’s near past. according to disclosures available on the city’s open data portal, former mayor michael fougere won in 2012 after spending $73,252 and prevailed again in 2016 with $38,899.
in pat fiacco’s last election before stepping down in 2009, the long-time mayor spent $43,042.
in his victory speech on election day, bachynski called his run a “true grassroots, word-of-mouth campaign, through and through” that resonated with voters in regina.
advertisement
supporting that description on paper, all of bachynski’s reportable donors were personal, with no corporations or companies listed on his disclosure forms.
city council candidates shelled out
seven out of 10 elected city councillors spent more than $10,000 on their election bids last fall, a trend that emerged in contrast to this year’s mayoral campaigns.
couns. shobna radons (ward 7) and dan rashovich (ward 1) were the biggest spenders at $12,000 and $11,957, respectively.
radons received a total of $4,500 from seven labour unions in regina, including the regina district & labour council which endorsed her during the campaign period.
ward 10 councillor clark bezo was a close third, expending $11,840 on his campaign. nearly half of that sum came from bezo’s own pocket or from his condominium consulting company, pentus management group.
couns. sarah turnbull (ward 5) spent $11,401, david froh (ward 3) dropped $11,006, george tsiklis (ward 2) reported $10,886, and mark burton (ward 4) listed $10,374 in campaign expenses.
one of only two returning councillors, shanon zachidniak (ward 8), reported that her campaign cost $7,769 — just shy of what was invested into her inaugural 2020 campaign.
advertisement
coun. jason mancinelli (ward 9) spent the least on his campaign for a third term at $4,622, with ward 6 councillor victoria flores just ahead of him at $4,951.
candidates talha khan in ward 1 and chidi igwe in ward 2 were named for not filing any disclosure reports by the deadline of feb. 11.
failure to comply with the expense bylaw allows the city’s returning officer to withhold both candidates’ $100 deposit, which was to be paid at the time they submitted nomination papers.
if candidates are convicted of a violation, fines of up to $10,000 may be imposed for failing to comply with the expense bylaw. candidates can also be disqualified from running for office in future elections.
the regina leader-post has created an afternoon headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. click here to subscribe.
with some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark leaderpost.com and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. click here to subscribe.
share story
