Campaign finance reports are in for next week’s special election in Ward 5, which could be a close race that comes down to who does the best job of getting their supporters to the polls. Which often takes money. The biggest news, therefore, is that candidate Frank Wilds has a huge lead in the cash-on-hand department.

Wilds has more than $45,000 left to spend in the final days of the race, thanks in part to the $18,500 he’s loaned his campaign. His donors include former councilmembers Frank Smith, Bill Lightfoot, and John Ray (or at least, Ray’s law firm). Wilds also took bundled donations (legal, of course) from the politically connected gasman Joe Mamo and the city’s biggest road paving company, Fort Myer Construction. Wilds also got $4,000 from entities sharing an address with Axent Realty Group, which has just been showering D.C. pols with money in recent campaigns.

Kenyan McDuffie has raised an impressive $93,000 so far, but has just under $14,000 left to spend in the next week. Like Wilds, he received money from Ray and Mamo (you think this race might be close?). Some other names on McDuffie’s donor report include cab magnate Jerry Schaeffer (a longtime supporter of Harry Thomas Jr.‘s), Ward 6 Councilmartyr Saint Tommy Wells, and eduphilanthropist Katherine Bradley.

Delano Hunter, the other presumed frontrunner, doesn’t have his report posted yet at the Office of Campaign Finance. Yesterday, Hunter told LL he wasn’t expecting to post big bucks and is relying on the free labor of his friends and family to get to the finish line.

The cash-on-hand totals for the other contestants whose reports had been posted, after the jump:

Tim Day: $4,750

Shelly Gardner: $141

Kathy Henderson: $1,469.25

Drew Hubbard: $2566.04 (Hubbard also received money from Fort Myer and others linked to it. Again, might this race be close?)

Ruth Marshall: $540

Bill Dwenger: $0