Anyone who’s checked their mail, their phones, social media feeds or favorite news source, TV channel or radio station in recent weeks knows that candidates and political organizations have been spending big bucks to get out their messages. But newly filed reports provide some hard numbers behind the barrage of mailers, ads and texts.

The four dozen candidates running for local legislative seats, county offices and city council positions reported this week that they collectively raised nearly a quarter-million dollars and have spent roughly $200,000 on everything from yard signs to parade candy.

While substantial, the figure is a significant understatement of the money poured into local races, as it doesn’t include the spending by the many outside groups that have gotten involved.

Senate District 19

In the Republican race to represent Senate District 19, former Sen. R. J. Kost has significantly out-raised Rep. Paul Hoeft.

Kost reported raising nearly $40,000. That included $6,500 from his own pocket and over $23,500 from roughly 70 individuals and couples. His donors include former state Reps. Sandy Newsome of Cody and David Northrup and Dave Bonner of Powell, former Senate President Eli Bebout of Riverton and current state Sen. Tara Nethercott of Cheyenne. He also received $9,850 from political action committees representing Wyoming lawyers, realtors, credit unions, hospitals, mining companies, contractors, stock growers and rural electric associations.

Meanwhile, Hoeft reported raising roughly $12,120, with $2,770 apparently from his own pocket and $7,535 from 17 donors, including state Rep. Scott Smith of Lingle. He also received $1,314 from unknown donors.

House District 24

Over in the Cody area, challenger Quin Blair reportedly out-raised incumbent House District 24 Rep. Nina Webber by more than 3:1.

Blair said he raised $28,822 from 45 individual donors and groups representing the hospitality sector, mining companies, realtors, contractors and the Gov. Mark Gordon-backed Prosperity and Commerce PAC.

Webber reported raising $9,080 from 18 individuals. She reported only spending $3,213 — with $15,600 still in the bank on Wednesday — compared to Blair’s $15,739 worth of expenditures.

House District 25

In the race to represent Powell in the state House, Mayor John Wetzel enjoys a nearly 3:1 lead in fundraising over Navy cybersecurity contractor Matt Legler.

Wetzel reported raising $26,850. Of that total, $19,585 came from 75 donors with about $5,500 coming from PACs representing Black Hills Energy and Wyoming educators, realtors, contractors and mining companies. His financial backers include former Reps. Bonner — who is also Wetzel’s father-in-law and the Tribune’s publisher — and Newsome.

As for Legler, he reported raising $8,090, with $1,700 from his own pocket and $6,320 from 18 donors.

House District 50

The reports show Cody attorney David Hill having a sizable financial advantage over audiologist Levi Asay in the race to replace Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams.

Hill reported raising $29,841 from 33 individuals and a half-dozen political action committees representing Wyoming lawyers, realtors, mining companies, contractors, hospitals and the Tulsa-based oil company ONEOK. As for Asay, he reported raising and spending $9,110, with all but a $100 donation coming from himself and his family.

Outside spending

It’s challenging to identify all of the outside groups that have gotten involved in local legislative races and effectively impossible to determine how much they’ve spent on specific contests, because groups aren’t required to detail exactly how their money was spent.

However, one Virginia-based group, Make Liberty Win, opted to share how it divvied up its $550,000 worth of spending in Wyoming. Its Tuesday report says the group put $23,367 into a trio of Park County races, with a particular focus on the Senate District 19 race.

Make Liberty Win says it spent $11,860 opposing Kost via mailers, phone calls and text messages and paid canvassers another $5,900 to go door-to-door and promote Hoeft and Legler. The political group also hired canvassers to talk up Webber for $5,000 and bought $500 worth of digital ads for her, alongside $78 worth of text messages.

Federal records show most of the PAC’s funding came from Young Americans for Liberty, Inc., an Austin, Texas-based nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors.

Other groups — such as the PAC For a Better Wyoming — have effectively backed the opposite set of local candidates, but have not disclosed how much money they spent on each race.

Park County Commission

As far as dollars go, reports show it’s been a more muted race for the Park County Commission. The 10 Republican candidates generally reported raising between $2,043 (challenger Tim Lasseter) and $4,520 (Treasurer Barb Poley).

Challenger Karin Richard reported the largest number of individual donors, with 19. That included $666 from Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Bextel of Jackson, who also contributed $333 to Lasseter.

Poley was the only other commission candidate to crack double digits of financial supporters, with 15 individual donors.

Commissioner Lloyd Thiel, meanwhile, made the largest commitment to his campaign, with all $4,500 of his funds coming from his own pocket.

The outlier was Joe Baugher, who reported raising and spending nothing.

Other county offices

In what’s become a particularly bitter race, deputy county attorneys Ericka Smith of Powell and Marina Tucker reported spending a combined total of nearly $20,000 in their bids to replace their boss, outgoing County Attorney Bryan Skoric.

Tucker reported spending $6,272.39 of her own money. She declined to accept any campaign contributions, though Skoric independently purchased a pair of newspaper ads this week supporting her candidacy.

As for Smith, she reported spending $13,387.82. That included roughly $5,000 worth of contributions from Smith and her boyfriend, and $7,186 raised from 23 donors. All but two of those donors live outside of Park County, including former Cheyenne Mayor Marian Smith, former state Sen. Affie Ellis of Cheyenne and the campaign of Laramie County Commission Gunnar Malm.

In the county treasurer’s race, First Deputy Treasurer Anne Lawler reported raising $1,850 (with $1,650 coming from 10 donors and $200 from herself), while her opponent, Powell City Councilman Troy Bray, chipped in $800 of his own money and received $200 from two donors.

As for the county clerk’s race, First Deputy Clerk Hans Odde reported raising $13,878, with $4,300 of his own money and $9,474 from 46 individuals. His donors included former Clerk Kelly Jensen and five former or current commissioners.

Veteran and former security professional Jimmy Rush, meanwhile, put in nearly $2,000 of his own money while raising $1,648 from a half-dozen donors. He’d spent $3,636 as of this week.

Powell City Council

In the five-way race to represent Ward 1 on the City Council, Steve Nickles led the way with nearly $1,450 worth of spending, followed by Crystal Reese ($368), Jim Core ($180), Holly Cole ($145) and David Bryan ($25). Other than $130 worth of design services that were donated to Nickles, the campaigns were all self-financed.

In Ward 2, Councilwoman Kristy Fields reported spending $858.23, while challenger John Sinskie spent $461.56. Unchallenged Councilman Zane Logan reported spending nothing.

As for Ward 3, Justin Waterworth reported raising $666.30 — mostly in the form of donated graphics work — while fellow challenger Venus Bontadelli spent $96, aided by a $20 contribution from Councilman Bray. Meanwhile, challenger Lupe Bickford reported spending $35.78 and receiving $80 from Republican gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien of Cody. As for incumbent Councilman Tim Sapp, he reported spending nothing.