WORCESTER – According to public information from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF), 21 candidates for the 2025 election to the Worcester City Council reported $444,285 raised as of June 16. Worcester residents donated $239,383 of those funds, or 54 percent. Of the 3,087 individual contribution, the average donation was $144. Residents outside Massachusetts contributed $31,212, seven percent of the total.
(Editor’s Note: All figures in this piece were calculated by the individual donor lists of each candidate from Jan. 1, 2024 to the data available on June 16. Funds were rounded to the nearest dollar. Percentages were rounded to the nearest full percentage point.)
Satya Mitra, the president and CEO of The Guru Tax & Financial Services, Inc., a first-time candidate running for city councilor at-large, reports $89,191 raised from 210 donors, for an average donation of $425. Mitra’s raised over $26,000 more than the next highest candidate, Mayor Joe Petty, who raised $62,542 from 244 donors, an average donation of $256. Petty’s average donation is second-highest, to only Mitra. Mitra also raised the lowest percentage of his funds from Worcester residents, 25 percent.
Of those 3,087 contributions, donors provided the maximum allowed by law in Massachusetts, $1,000, on 104 occasions. Mitra collected 59 of those maximum donations, or 57 percent. Of all funds raised, Mitra’s total equals about 20 percent.
Petty collected 18 contributions at the maximum of $1,000. No other candidate has over five.
District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj brought in the most individual contributions, with 379, which is 72 more than the next highest individual contribution recipient, District 2 Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson. Haxhiaj’s average donation of $51 is the lowest of all candidates but one, Owura-Kwaku Sarkodieh, who reported one contribution for $50 thus far.
In the race for mayor, Khrystian King received five more individual contributions than Petty, but Petty’s total amount raised is near three times more than King’s $19,957.
Fundraising is an important component in elections, but not as critical in local races when compared to federal or state level elections. For example, Gary Rosen, who is seeking an at-large council seat this year, never raised significant amounts of money, but won election multiple times to represent District 5 and as an at-large councilor. From Jan. 1, 2018 to the end of 2019, the last time he won re-election, Rosen raised just $1,200.
See the totals for each candidate reporting funds raised this cycle, below.
(Note: Edson Montero and Bernard Iandoli, both running for councilor at-large, have yet to report campaign contributions.)
