Encinitas City Council member Bruce Ehlers, one of two people running for mayor, entered the final month before the Nov. 5 election with more than twice the amount of cash on hand in his campaign fund as the incumbent mayor. But when the most recent financial statements for outside political action groups working on behalf of the candidates are included in the picture, the situation flips, and incumbent Mayor Tony Kranz is far ahead. The newest campaign financial statements cover the reporting period from July 1 to Sept. 21, plus some large donations that were received or spent in the final days of September. Financial forms show that Ehlers’ campaign raised $19,375 and spent $7,547 between July 1 and Sept. 21. When the leftover cash was combined with unspent money collected earlier in the year, the Ehlers campaign had $36,196 in late September — money that could pay for mailers, signs and other campaign publicity in the final weeks before the election. Recent Ehlers campaign contributors included many retired Encinitas residents, particularly from Olivenhain where he lives. Donors who gave between $100 and $250 to his campaign during the latest filing period included former county supervisor and former Encinitas Councilmember Pam Slater-Price, who now lives in Del Mar; plus former Encinitas council candidate Julie Thunder, Encinitas gardener Nan Sterman and the Encinitas Citizens Review Panel political action group. In its campaign paperwork, the Encinitas Citizens Review Panel PAC reported that it had raised $11,000 and spent $8,790, leaving it with $4,209 for the final weeks before the election. In addition to Ehlers, this PAC has been donating to the campaigns of two City Council candidates — Luke Shaffer and Jim O’Hara — plus two Encinitas Union School District candidates — Monica Lee and Aimee Sproul — as well as paying for advertising opposing Measure K, the city-sponsoring sales tax ballot measure. Meanwhile, two PAC are supporting the Kranz campaign, the Encinitas Firefighters PAC and a group called Encinitas Citizens United in Support of Tony Kranz for Mayor. The Citizens United group reported spending and raising little money in the latest reporting period — less than $2,000 — but the firefighters’ group entered the final sprint of the election period with $52,212 in cash on hand. That group raised $56,513 from its members during the July 1 to Sept. 21st period. Its most recent expenditures, which occurred in late September, included $10,000 to support the Kranz campaign and $5,000 to support the city’s sales tax ballot measure. If that ballot measure passes, some of its anticipated $15.4 million in annual revenue could be used to upgrade fire stations 1 and 6, city officials have said. There’s also a PAC formed just to support the sales tax ballot measure — Protect Our Legacy Encinitas. It reported raising $450 in the latest financial filing period, and $2,450 for the entire year so far. Recent donors included Kranz, who gave $250, financial forms indicate. In his own campaign financial paperwork, Kranz reported raising $17,701 and spending $8,983 between July 1 and Sept. 21, leaving him with $14,589 going into the final weeks of the election season. His recent contributors included Councilmember Kellie Hinze, Lizbeth Ecke of CB Ranch Enterprises, housing advocate Bob Kent, Cardiff artist Rosemary KimBal, former Councilmember Lisa Shaffer, former Councilmember and current Orange County Power Authority interim CEO Joseph Mosca, and Siesta Life cannabis dispensary manager Bertin Porcayo. Glen Johnson, an Encinitas Ranch area retiree who has advocated establishing a park on city-owned land along Quail Gardens Drive, donated $250 to both the Ehlers and Kranz campaigns.