GALVESTON — Mayoral candidate Joe Jaworski already has outpaced his challengers in the race to raise money for next year’s city election.

Jaworski has raised $35,500 since January, about one-third of what he expects to spend on the race, according to campaign finance reports filed this week.

Almost half of the donors have Houston addresses. Fifteen donors list their principal occupation as “attorney.” And six donors are law firms.

Most of the contributions came from family friends or people he knew growing up in Houston, Jaworski said.

And members of the legal community are always excited to support a fellow lawyer who’s stepping up to take on a role in public service, Jaworski, who is an attorney, said.

Jaworski’s first campaign fundraising letter went out to the people who contributed to his bid last year for the District 11 state Senate seat, another reason why so many of the donors are from the mainland, he said.

But now that he’s updated his former supporters on his latest political venture, Jaworski is ready to focus his attention picking up contributions from Galveston.

Several well-known islanders already have contributed to the campaign.

Rabbi Jimmy Kessler, of Temple B’nai Israel, gave $500. Sheridan Lorenz, daughter of island native, philanthropist and oil baron George Mitchell, gave $1,000. Jerry Mohn, who heads up the West Galveston Island Property Owners Association, gave $250; and Jamaica Beach Mayor Victor Pierson, who also is president of Moody National Bank, gave $500.

Jaworski’s largest contribution, $2,500, came from Joe Broussard, of Texas City, president of Next Deer Construction.

Once money started coming into his campaign, Jaworski started to spend it, mostly on political consultants and printing.

Between January and June, Jaworski spent $16,386, leaving him with $19,872 going into the next six months.

Danny Weber, the only other mayoral hopeful required to file a report this week, has not raised any money so far this year. Weber does have $2,267 left over from his previous District 5 council races, according to his report.

All seven city council members filed semiannual campaign finance reports this week as required by the Texas Ethics Commission. Several council members were fined by the commission earlier this year for previous report violations.