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All three candidates in next Tuesday's Alexandria City Council special election filed campaign finance reports with the Virginia State Board of Elections this past weekend and Monday. Read together, they reveal a race that is competitive in name but dramatically unequal in resources — and three donor coalitions that could not look more different from one another.
The filings cover activity through April 9. All three campaigns are still actively raising money and hosting fundraisers. The next full report covering the final stretch through Election Day isn't due until May 21 — a month after the race is decided. What happens financially between now and Tuesday is largely invisible to the public, with one exception: Virginia law requires campaigns to report any contribution of $500 or more received between April 10 and April 20 within 24 hours. The Brief will monitor those filings through the weekend.
Here is what the filings show.
The scoreboard
Frank Fannon raised $82,299.95, spent $34,066.49, and has $48,233.46 in cash heading into the final week. Sandy Marks raised $53,131.00, spent $43,524.96, and has $9,606.04 left. Alison Virginia O'Connell raised $4,638.00, spent $2,459.35, and has $2,178.65 remaining. Fannon enters Tuesday with more than five times the cash of Marks and more than 22 times what O'Connell has available to spend.
Fannon: the well-funded independent with a Republican past
Frank Fannon won his Alexandria City Council seat in 2009 as a Republican — breaking what the Washington Post described at the time as a Democratic stranglehold on the council. He served until 2012, when he did not win re-election, and has not held public office since. He is now running as an independent, calling throughout this campaign for eliminating partisan labels from city council races and keeping national politics out of local government. A fourth-generation Alexandrian, Fannon retired from a 32-year career in mortgage banking and has deep roots in the city's civic institutions — serving as president of the Alexandria Aces, past president of Volunteer Alexandria and Agenda:Alexandria, and a 2020 Living Legend of Alexandria honoree.
His donor list reflects broad support from Alexandria's professional and business community. The overwhelming majority of his 264 contributors are Alexandria residents — attorneys, realtors, mortgage bankers, contractors, insurance agents, financial advisors, and retirees who have given in amounts ranging from $50 to several thousand dollars.
Several contributions, however, stand out.
The single largest contribution in the entire race — $5,000, received April 9, the last day of the reporting period — came from Bill Rossello for City Council, a campaign committee that has been effectively dormant for nearly five years. Rossello ran for Alexandria City Council in 2021, raised roughly $57,000 that cycle, never won, and never dissolved his committee. State Board of Elections records show the Rossello committee raised zero dollars in every reporting period from mid-2021 through the end of 2025, its balance declining from around $35,000 to $25,868.68 as of January 30, 2026. Rossello told the Alexandria Brief on Wednesday that the declining balance reflects political contributions the committee made to several candidates in 2024 and 2025, including in Virginia statewide races, which Virginia law permits campaign committees to do. Rossello is a regular contributor to the Alexandria Times, where his biography describes him as a civic advocate, management consultant, and long-time Alexandria resident. The transfer to Fannon is legal under Virginia law.
Reince Priebus, the former Republican National Committee chairman and Trump White House chief of staff — now an Alexandria resident and attorney at Michael Best — gave $1,000 on April 9. Two associates of The Nickles Group, a Washington lobbying firm founded by former Senate Majority Leader Don Nickles, also appear in the donor list: Jeff Choudhry, listed as a partner, gave $260.73 in February; Donald Kent, a consultant with the firm, gave $1,041.98 in early April.
Among other notable individual contributions: Win Sheridan gave $2,604.48; A. Michael Sramek gave $2,604.48 in March and another $2,500 on April 10, captured in the large contributions report filed after the period closed; Karen Snyder gave $3,000. Corporate contributors include R.E. Lee Electric of Newington ($2,000), One Nineteen North Henry LLC ($1,000, listed as legal), JSH Holdings ($500, real estate), Mark S Allen Law Offices ($500), and Sugarhouse LLC ($500, a North Alfred Street salon). A government relations employee at Amazon gave $260.73.
Local business owners also feature prominently in Fannon's donor list. Jason Yates, owner of Lena's Pizza, gave $1,041.98. Tim Shaw, a partner at Alexandria Restaurant Partners, gave $260.73. Robert Pizzano of Pizzano Contractors gave $521.15. Aris McMahon, president of Advantage Inc., gave $1,041.98. Bernard McGinn, founder of McGinn Investment Management on Wilkes Street, gave $1,000. Shawn McLaughlin, founder of McLaughlin Ryder Investments, gave $1,000. Victoria Vasques, owner and chairwoman of Tribal Tech LLC, gave $260.73. Hubert Hoffman of Hoffman Real Estate gave $1,000. David Millard of Avison Young commercial real estate gave $250.
The campaign also carries $4,681.10 in outstanding loans from Frank Fannon of Vassar Road — a separate address from the candidate's listed home in the Clover-College Park neighborhood.
On the spending side, Fannon paid ASAP Printing and Graphics more than $20,700 across four payments for direct mail, yard signs, and walk cards. Cold Spark, a Pittsburgh-based digital firm, received $8,150 across two payments for online advertising and consulting. He paid $1,000 to Volunteer Alexandria (listed as a contribution) and $1,000 to campaign consultant Terri Hauser, whose address is listed as "info requested" in the filing — a gap Virginia election law requires campaigns to correct.
Marks: spent aggressively, nearly out of cash — but has the party
Sandy Marks is an advocacy communications specialist and two-term former chair of the Alexandria Democratic Committee who won the February 21 Democratic firehouse primary with 39.6% of the vote in a five-candidate field. She raised $53,131 from 269 contributors and spent more than 80 cents of every dollar she took in, leaving $9,606.04 for the final push.
It is worth noting that unlike Fannon and O'Connell, who filed directly as independents, Marks had to campaign and spend through a competitive five-candidate Democratic firehouse primary in February before the general election race even began — a financial burden her opponents did not face.
What she lacks in cash, she may partly offset with infrastructure. A $6,549 payment to the Democratic Party of Virginia on April 3 — the campaign's second-largest single expenditure — almost certainly purchased voter file access and coordinated turnout support that does not fully appear as a direct campaign line item.
Several names in Marks' donor file reflect the consolidation of Alexandria's Democratic community behind her candidacy. Christopher Leibig, a criminal defense attorney who ran against McPike in the House District 5 Democratic primary, gave Marks $1,000 in February and another $500 on April 13 — the day the full report was filed — for a total of $1,500. Eileen Cassidy Rivera, a former Alexandria School Board member who ran against McPike in the House District 5 special election, provided a $500 in-kind contribution of food and beverages at a March 22 event. Three Democratic elected officials' committees also gave directly to her campaign: Ebbin for Virginia ($1,000), and the committees of Del. Charniele Herring and Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker ($500 each). Virginia's List, a women's political PAC, gave $250 — appearing in the filing twice under slightly different names, which may indicate a duplicate entry the campaign will need to address.
The largest individual contribution in the entire race across all three filings belongs to Marks' donor list. Mario Velasquez, a South Lee Street resident listed as not employed, gave $1,000 in early February and $3,000 days later for a combined $4,000. Family members also appear to have supported the campaign: Jan Marks of Lutz, Florida gave $3,000; Davis Marks of Fort Lauderdale and Jason Marks of Davie, Florida gave $200 and $250 respectively.
One question in the filing worth flagging: two contributions appear from a donor in Birmingham, Alabama — listed once as "Sandra Rudolf" ($1,000, Feb. 10) and once as "Sandra Rudulph" ($1,000, Feb. 14). If these represent a single donor, it is a $2,000 aggregate contribution the campaign may need to clarify.
On spending, Marks paid ASAP Printing — the same vendor Fannon used — roughly $14,900 across multiple orders. Digital firm Foundation Blue received $5,980 for streaming and display ads. Stones' Phones in California received $2,172 for a tele-townhall. Alexandria-based RDG Impact LLC received $2,000 for firehouse primary consulting. In one small but human detail: Marks reimbursed herself $21.58 for supplies she brought to a career day at an elementary school.
O'Connell: 32 donors, one major backer, and a yard-sign budget
Alison Virginia O'Connell is an activist and former member of two city advisory bodies — the Commission on Persons with Disabilities and the Alexandria Housing Affordability Advisory Committee — whose campaign centers on ethical investment, affordable housing, and what she calls Trump-proofing Alexandria. Her filing is the most striking of the three not for what it contains, but for what it reveals about the scale difference in this race.
She raised $4,638 from 32 contributors and has $2,178.65 left. Her itemized donor list has five entries. One donor — Nicole Enfield, a massage therapist at Thrive Bodyworks on Prince Street in Alexandria — gave $2,000 on March 21 and $500 more on April 3, a combined $2,500 that accounts for 54 cents of every itemized dollar O'Connell raised. Alexis Halyard, a physician at UVA Health in Manassas, gave $250. Thomas O'Connell of Chicago — almost certainly a family member — gave $250. The candidate herself gave $5, listed under her employer Alexandria Pet Care, where she works as a client services manager. The remaining $1,633 came from 27 small donors giving $100 or less.
Her spending reflects a campaign run almost entirely without professional infrastructure: 130 yard signs from Basecamp Inc. across two orders totaling $1,465.81; flyers from FedEx and Staples for $450; a campaign launch event at La'Baik restaurant on Mount Vernon Avenue for $444; a one-month subscription to VoterTrack voter engagement software for $71.35; and a Squarespace domain for $14. There are no consultants, no mail vendors, no PACs, no digital advertising firms. O'Connell filed her report on April 11, two days before Fannon and Marks.
What comes next
The filings cover activity only through April 9 — and all three campaigns are still actively raising money and hosting fundraisers with seven days until Election Day. Virginia's large contribution reporting requirement means any gift of $500 or more received between April 10 and April 20 must be disclosed publicly within 24 hours. The next full report, covering April 10 through Election Day, isn't due until May 21 — a month after the race is decided.
What is already clear is that Alexandria voters are engaged. The city's election dashboard, updated through Monday, shows 21,059 combined early votes cast or mail ballots sent. Of the 10,401 mail-in ballots sent out, 6,071 have already been returned — with 3,861 still awaiting return, 59 flagged as needing cure, and 410 marked undeliverable. Another 10,658 Alexandrians have voted early in person. Today is also the last day to register to vote.
With roughly 102,600 active registered voters on the rolls, more than 16,000 Alexandrians — about 16 percent of the electorate — had already cast ballots before this weekend's final push of early voting even began. A significant portion of the audience these campaigns are spending to reach has already made up its mind.
For the votes still to be cast, the question is whether Fannon's $48,233 cash advantage, Marks' Democratic Party turnout machinery, or O'Connell's grassroots operation can make the difference in what is shaping up to be a closely watched race.
Polls open April 21 at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Early voting continues through April 18 at 132 N. Royal St.
The Alexandria Brief will monitor large contribution filings through April 20 and will report any significant late money as it is disclosed. Campaign finance filings show the Alexandria Times received advertising payments from both the Fannon and Marks campaigns during this reporting period — $615 from Fannon and $428 from Marks — and Local News Now, the parent company of ALXnow, received $120 from the Marks campaign. The Alexandria Brief does not accept advertising from candidates or campaigns and received no payments from any candidate in this race.
Updated April 17, 2026: After publication, Bill Rossello contacted the Alexandria Brief to say the figures in his State Board of Elections filings are incorrect and that he intends to file amended reports. "Your numbers are correct as reported," Rossello wrote. "The reports are wrong." Rossello said his committee raised approximately $43,000 in 2021, spent about $30,000, made approximately $13,000 in political donations from 2024 to the present, and has approximately $111 remaining.
Updated April 15, 2026: The Rossello paragraph has been updated to include context provided by Bill Rossello, who contacted the Alexandria Brief after publication. Rossello said the declining balance in his campaign committee reflects political contributions made to several candidates in 2024 and 2025, which Virginia law permits campaign committees to do. The story originally described the balance as "slowly declining," which has been corrected to "declining" to reflect that the reductions were the result of active political expenditures.
Updated April 15, 2026: This story has been updated to correct an earlier version that incorrectly described Christopher Leibig and Eileen Cassidy Rivera as having run against Sandy Marks. Leibig and Rivera ran against Kirk McPike in the House District 5 Democratic primary. Neither ran against Marks. The story has also been updated to add context on local business donors, the financial burden Marks faced in competing through a Democratic firehouse primary, and early voting turnout figures from the city's election dashboard.
