30 hours to go till the vote-counting begins. We have profiled candidates, covered forums and endorsement meetings, and now it’s in your hands – if you haven’t voted already, get your ballot in the mail or into a dropbox (no stamp needed for that option!) – there’s still time to prove the “low turnout” predictions wrong. Our pre-election coverage is all archived here, with contributors including veteran West Seattle-based journalists Kathy Mulady and Jack Mayne. Kathy looked into the latest campaign-spending information, with a West Seattle hook, to bring you this report:

By Kathy Mulady
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

West Seattle residents have already contributed nearly $121,000 to an election season that is shaping up to be one of the most expensive ever.

So far, candidates for mayor, city council, and city attorney have raised $2.4 million and spent $1.9 million.

Mayor Greg Nickels and challengers for his office have already spent more than $1 million, according to the Seattle Ethics and Elections website.

Nickels alone has spent more than a half million dollars. Candidate Joe Mallahan has spent $310,000 and departing city councilmember Jan Drago has spent $102,000 in her bid to win the mayor job.

In the city council races, $1.1 million has been raised and $801,000 spent. Robert Rosencrantz, making his third run for a council seat, has spent $122,000. Sally Bagshaw has spent $98,000 and Mike O’Brien spent $73,000.

So far, West Seattle has poured more money into the city attorney race than any other neighborhood except downtown. The west side has contributed a little more than $8,000 – about 11 percent of the total money raised in the race between City Attorney (and West Seattle resident) Tom Carr and challenger Pete Holmes, who lives in Seward Park.

The city attorney race isn’t on the primary ballot, but both Carr and Holmes are revving up for a duel in the November election. Most of the West Seattle city attorney race contributions so far, $6,700, have gone to Carr.

West Seattle contributions account for about 5 percent of most candidate contributions. Nickels, received $40,000 from his West Seattle neighbors, about 7 percent of the total money he raised.

Dorsol Plants, an energetic political newcomer and city council candidate from West Seattle, counts 37 percent of his contributions from the neighborhood — $2,500.

Council candidate Sally Bagshaw has collected more then $8,000 from West Seattle supporters.

While candidates for elected office are heading toward record contributions and expenses, but real big spender on the primary ballot are the plastic bag supporters.

Nearly $1.4 million has been spent by “Stop the Bag Tax,” funded mostly by the American Chemistry Council, based in Arlington, Virginia. The Green Bag support campaign has spent about $74,000, mostly from People for Puget Sound with help from the Seattle Chapter of the Sierra Club.

You can search the city’s campaign-spending database online through pages including this one.