Money may have helped some candidates in the general election, but it was far from the only factor. 

The top spender in the Northwest College board race won a seat Tuesday, but the top spender in the Park County School District 1 race did not, according to the pre-general financial reports made to the Park County Elections office. 

Denise Laursen self funded her campaign and spent $1,193 in newspaper ads and signs, slightly more than fellow candidate Mallory Riley, who spent $1,083, from her own and other individual donations, on newspaper ads, campaign signs and other advertising. 

The spending paid off for Laursen who won a spot along with incumbent Dusty Spomer, who spent nothing.

Emily Hart spent $328 and Carolyn Danko $252. 

In the Powell school board race, two contestants spent more than $1,000 and one, an incumbent, won a seat. Laurie Larsen was the top spender at $1,113 in her self funded campaign, including on signs, door hangers and newspaper ads, but finished outside the top four. 

Trace Paul spent $1,029 of mostly his own money, with one other individual contribution thrown in, on signs and newspaper ads and won another term. 

The other incumbent, Lillian Brazelton, spent $564, almost all her own money, on signs and newspaper ads on the way to a win. 

The two challengers who won spent less than Brazelton combined, as Dustin Paul spent $458, from mostly two individual contributors in the community, on posters and campaign signs on the way to the highest vote total. The fourth winner, Beau Fulton, spent nothing on his way to the final seat, ahead of Rich Stearns, who also didn’t report spending a dime on his campaign. 

Jennifer Franks spent $475 in her campaign, Joni Bennett spent $101 and Daniel Morrow reported no expenses. 

The only political action committee listed as having spent money in the county during the general election season is the Conservative Roundup PAC, which received a large amount of local donations from Cody and Powell people and spent $345 on a mailing listing the conservatives to vote for in each race. Some of their picks won in the Powell hospital and school board races.  

Some area partisan races that saw a large amount of money spent in the primary saw smaller amounts in the general, such as for Park County Commission, where Libertarian Thomas Ehlers, Jr. spent $1,147 to challenge the three Republicans. 

Dossie Overfield spent an extra $1,008 in securing another term while Lloyd Thiel and Scott Steward didn’t report any additional spending, although Thiel had spent more than $6,000 and Steward more than $8,000 in the primary, both more than Overfield. 

As an uncontested primary winner, Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams still spent some money early and some throughout the fall to tally $6,176 in expenses out of $8,928 received — from a variety of sources from individuals to state PACS and the state GOP — on her way to a big win over Libertarian Carrie Satterwhite, who spent $1,331.