A Salem City Council candidate has raised over $38,000 during this year’s campaign — more than the other four candidates combined.
Independent Jeffrey Hoeflich-Nickels’ total is also more than any Salem candidate raised during the last council election two years ago — during a presidential election year — and it’s a large amount generally for a Salem municipal race.
About $30,000 of the amount is split between money he loaned his campaign and a contribution from a political consulting firm Hoeflich-Nickels co-owns, i77 Strategies, according to the Virginia Public Access Project’s finance numbers from Oct. 21. He also received $5,000 from donor Aaron Spradlin, who works for i77, according to the VPAP data.
The i77 firm also has a tie to the lone Republican candidate in the Roanoke City Council race — Amanda Marko — a client of i77 for this election campaign who has raised the most money to date of any of the candidates in the Roanoke or Salem races, at over $50,000.
The other Salem candidates running for two seats are independent A.J. Harpold, independent Mark Henrickson, Republican incumbent Hunter Holliday and Republican J.D. Taylor. According to the most recent VPAP reports tracking money through Sept. 30, those four candidates have raised $11,549 among them.
Holliday comes the closest to Hoeflich-Nickels, with almost $7,000 raised.
How much money each of the Salem candidates put toward their own campaigns was a question asked of them at a recent candidate forum hosted by the Kiwanis Club on Sept. 29.
Harpold and Holliday said their campaigns are mostly self-funded. Henrickson said his campaign is about 30% self-funded and that he doesn’t like asking for money. Taylor said he hasn’t had to spend his own money in his campaign yet but hasn’t outright asked anyone for donations. According to VPAP, Taylor’s fundraising sits above $2,700, and Henrickson’s at $0.
“I really needed to be able to have something to show before I started asking people to donate to the campaign,” said Harpold, who also received a donation from her father, a physician at Carilion. Harpold’s donations total over $1,800.
Even during the most recent presidential election, campaign finance totals did not get close to $38,000 in the Salem council race. During that race, Mayor Renee Turk raised the most money, with a little over $11,000.
Hoeflich-Nickels said in an interview that he believes when you run a campaign, you have to “be a full campaign” when it comes to what you do to provide people with your message.
“We are a big grassroots firm, and we think it’s important for us to knock on doors and be out talking to voters face to face, but it’s also an opportunity when you are in their mailboxes, on cell phones, on social media, and you’re doing a full-service campaign,” he said. “I think when you personally invest into something, you’re showing people that you are in it for more than just getting elected, but you want to put your own resources into it.”
Hoeflich-Nickels said every piece of mail he sends out to registered voters in Salem costs about $4,000. He said he is partaking in everything he would advise one of his clients at i77 to do in a campaign.
The firm, i77 Strategies, started in 2020 when Hoeflich-Nickels decided to leave banking and go into business with his brother-in-law, he said. The name “i77” refers to the interstate that connects where the two men lived, Hoeflich-Nickels said — Wytheville to Starke County, Ohio, where Hoeflich-Nickels was living at the time. His brother-in-law, the campaign donor Spradlin, was the one with the politics background, he said, though Hoeflich-Nickels unsuccessfully ran for county recorder back in Ohio in 2008, he said.
One of i77 Strategies’ listed clients is Marko, Roanoke’s GOP candidate. She has also raised far more money than her opponents, at just over $50,500, according to the most recent VPAP data. The next closest is Stephanie Moon Reynolds, an independent and former council member, who has raised almost $24,000. Independent Kathy Cohen has raised almost $20,000.
Other opponents in the Roanoke race for three seats include Democrats Danny Clawson, Raekwon Moore and incumbents Vivian Sanchez-Jones and independent David Bowers.
Listed in Marko’s campaign expenses on VPAP is a $4,275 payment to i77 Strategies for consulting work. Marko said in a recent interview that she’s never run for public office and that she consulted i77 Strategies for a lot of the “logistics” of her campaign, including the handling of mailers, signs, campaign finances and her website. She said she especially wanted someone with knowledge and expertise of campaign finance.
“I had never run for office and didn’t want any slip-ups or errors around financial reporting or any requirements according to state regulation,” she said.
Unlike Hoeflich-Nickels’ campaign, Marko’s funding comes mostly from outside donations. Listed in her finance summary are over 80 cash contributions over $100, plus over 30 smaller donations and a $5,000 loan from Marko toward her campaign.
Most of her 86 cash contributions over $100 are from individuals and businesses — including $250 from current council member Evelyn Powers, a former Democrat turned independent who will leave the council in January. Her biggest donations listed are $5,000 from attorney John Thomas and $2,000 from Fat Boys Wrecker Service, according to the VPAP data.
In the Roanoke City Council’s 2024 election, lone Republican candidate Nick Hagen, who now serves on the council, also raised the most funds — with a total of over $70,000.
Marko said she thinks the donations she’s received are because the message she has is resonating with people.
“I do think my status running as a Republican makes me an underdog, and as a result, people are aware that I need to work harder to get my message out to more people, and that costs money,” she said in a recent interview.
She said fundraising itself isn’t directly indicative of success but is indicative of people buying into your vision.
“People are talking about me, is what I’m hearing,” Marko said. “There’s somebody that they haven’t seen before, and they’re interested.”
