In Minneapolis mayor's race, Dehn campaign behind on fundraising

State Rep. Ray Dehn, a favorite for Minneapolis mayor among DFL insiders, is running a bare-bones campaign.

Dehn has raised $54,702 this year in his run for mayor of Minneapolis, a quarter of the money raised by Mayor Betsy Hodges and Tom Hoch, and about seven times less than Council Member Jacob Frey.

Campaign finance reports, which were due Tuesday, are a measure of strength among candidates, though not always the most important one. Hodges defeated former Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Andrew in 2013 despite raising less money.

Though Dehn finished first in the July DFL convention with more than a third of the delegates, he received donations in the reporting period from only 68 people donating more than $100 — compared with more than 500 for Frey.

He is paying his campaign manager about $300 a week, compared with about $1,200 a week for Hoch's campaign manager.

"We finished first on caucus night spending less than $2,000 and first at July's City Convention spending less than $5,000," Dehn's campaign said in a statement. "We are proud 51 percent of our budget came from small donors."

While Dehn raised $54,702 over the reporting period, Frey raised $359,879, Hoch raised $227,172 and loaned himself another $226,000, and Hodges raised $204,138 and loaned her campaign $54,000. Aswar Rahman raised $13,625. Reports for Al Flowers and Nekima Levy-Pounds had not been posted to the Hennepin County website by Wednesday afternoon.

Adam Belz • 612-673-4405