ALSO: Ray Nagin campaign report (2007)

While New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin publicly danced around questions about his political future, he spent a considerable amount of money polling and researching a possible gubernatorial run, according to documents obtained by Eyewitness News.

Campaign records for all of 2007, which were filed with Louisiana's ethics board, show Nagin paid Dr. Silas Less, a political consultant, almost $60,000 last year.

“That's a lot of money to spend on polling,” said Dr. Ed Renwick, Eyewitness News political analyst. “I need a client like that. That's not too common.”

Eyewitness News contacted Lee on Friday. He said he conducted statewide polls and research for Nagin, who was interested in the governor's election. Nagin also used the money to poll other state senate and representative races, and according to Lee, he was looking to see which candidates he could or should endorse.

Nagin's expenditures show that he gave $2,500 to the campaign fund for State Sen. Cleo Fields, $1,000 to the campaign funds of State Rep. Juan Lafonta, State Sen. Candidate Jalila Jefferson Bullock and $2,500 to Yolanda Dupaty-Zeigler, who ran against Ann Duplessis and Jon Johnson for State Senate. The mayor also gave $1,000 to the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus Foundation.

Overall, the campaign disclosure report shows Nagin raised more than $210,000 in 2007 from 128 different donors. Among that group, companies that have or presently are tied to the city's lucrative sanitation contracts.

SDT, through two limited liability corporations, gave a total of $10,000, Richard’s Disposal sent $2,500 and Amid Metro Partnership, who's member, Jimmie Woods, is President of Metro Disposal, which shares the sanitation contract, gave $2,500.

“Well, if you have a big city contract and the mayor sends you an invitation to a fundraiser, most likely you are going to send the money back,” Renwick said. “You're the one with the big contract. Why irritate the mayor because you wouldn't have got the contract if the mayor didn't want you to get it.”

The records show Nagin’s mid-summer fundraiser in Kansas City raised little money. Thirty-two people in Missouri gave a total of just under $8,800.

“That's really not much money for a political fundraiser,” Renwick said.

But Nagin did not keep all of the money he received last year. He returned $2,500 to Montgomery Watson Harza, which this year, received a contract reportedly worth $6 million to coordinate recovery work. Nagin also returned money to Omni Pinnacle, the city's primary contractor after Hurricane Katrina.

“That's pretty smart. If you don't want bad publicity, don't give contracts to people who give you donations,” Renwick said.

The campaign disclosure report shows Nagin had $237,000 on hand at the end of last year.

Eyewitness News attempted to contact the mayor for an interview, but his communications department did not respond to an email request.

And in keeping with Eyewitness News’ full disclosure policy, it should be noted that Greg Rigamer, who conducts data analysis work for WWL-TV, which includes analysis of election returns, gave $2,500 to the Nagin campaign fund last year.