YOUNGSTOWN — Amber White, a write-in candidate for Youngstown mayor, and her husband, John, gave $27,333 to her campaign — more than anyone else seeking the office but the incumbent Jamael Tito Brown.

White did not file the pre-general election report until Tuesday, five days past the deadline. She said it took her campaign a while to get the report together between an Oct. 18 fire that destroyed her detached garage and swimming pool, and campaigning.

White filed as a write-in candidate July 8, two days after the Mahoning County Board of Elections voted not to certify her husband as an independent candidate. His petitions were rejected because he voted in the Democratic primary after filing as an independent and because board of elections members determined he violated the Youngstown city charter by not being an elector for the past five years.

Since Aug. 9, they’ve run a self-funded campaign for Amber White.

“We’re definitely serious about it,” she said. “We’re really pushing write-ins through advertisements. We’re stressing that you have to write in my name on the ballot. We want to make sure people understand I’m a candidate.”

The campaign had spent $24,846 as of Oct. 13, the last day of the pre-general filing period, and had $2,487 in its fund as of that date.

White spent $6,007 on radio commercials and $1,805 on newspaper advertisement for the campaign.

As of Oct. 13, White had raised and spent more money than every other candidate in the race, but Brown, the incumbent Democrat.

Republican Tracey Winbush reported raising $24,631 and spending $9,049 from the start of the year to Oct. 13 on her campaign.

Richard Vincent Hill, an independent and the only other person beside Brown and Winbush who will have his name on the ballot, reported raising $15,401 — with $13,000 contributed by him — and spending $14,690 on his campaign.

In addition to White, there are five other write-in candidates. None of them filed pre-general campaign finance reports. A candidate raising or spending at least $1,000 has to file such a report and those under that amount aren’t required to do so.

Between June 5 and Oct. 13, Brown’s campaign raised $56,342 and spent $35,116. Brown won a three-person Democratic primary and reported raising $69,030 and spending $68,094 on that race.

dskolnick@vindy.com