While city councilors may have thought in 2003 that campaign finance rules were not needed, an informal survey of Phoenix readers taken during the city’s 2006 elections showed an overwhelming majority favored reporting requirements.

Mayor Wren Stratton, who ran one campaign while the municipal election ethics laws were on the books and a second one without, said she also favors mandatory reporting.

“From the very beginning of my mayoral campaign, I told all my contributors that if they chose to give more than $199 their names would be disclosed,” Stratton said of her campaign during which no reporting was required. “To me, it was important to make public disclosure — I think it’s important to do that.”

Stratton said public disclosure is only half the solution to ensuring ethical elections. Even though a campaign contribution may be ethical, voters must follow the money trail in order to uncover any potential conflicts of interest.

“I still say — and I believe it — that the people who scream the loudest are the ones you really have to watch,” Stratton said.

McBride and his slate of candidates, two of whom have assumed positions on the City Council, have raised about five times more than his younger rival’s campaign.

McBride said the more than $15,000 raised this election cycle was spent in support of five campaigns.

“This is not the most money I’ve raised in a campaign,” McBride said.

Records show contributions to Hammons’ mayoral campaign picked up after the 19-year-old snagged more than 42 percent of the vote in the general election.

During the first 21 days of April, Hammons’ campaign raked in $1,245. That’s 16 percent more than the $1,069 contributed to the Hammons campaign in February and just $55 short of the $1,300 collected during the month of March.

McBride, who served three terms as Muskogee’s mayor and several years as ward councilor, said his campaign’s financial support is coming primarily from “business people and working people.” Hammons said he is winning support from “every man and woman.” Nearly half of his $3,600 and counting was contributed by one doctor and several other contributions from educators.

Hammons and McBride, who won almost 39 percent of the 4,363 votes cast April 1 in the city’s mayoral contest, will go head-to-head May 13 in the city’s runoff election.

Both candidates say they will promote a city government that is responsive to its citizens. In addition, McBride said he brings experience to the table. Hammons said he brings with him fresh ideas and no political baggage.