Among the campaign money streaming into the Tacoma mayor’s race in the final weeks before Election Day are two intriguing donations recently made to candidate Marilyn Strickland.

The first: $200 contributed on September 16 by a Patrice McCarthy of Tacoma. The second: $100 given six days later by Keri Rawlings-Rooney of University Place.

This afternoon, I confirmed that the former donation was made by none other than Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy (Strickland’s campaign contribution report lists only the words “info. requested” under the “Employer’s name/occupation” field for McCarthy’s donation).

Meanwhile, McCarthy’s executive director of external affairs, Keri Rooney, has not yet returned a phone call or email this afternoon to confirm she is responsible for the latter contribution (though the name and address provided on Strickland’s report for that donation indicate that Rooney, in fact, is).

What makes each of these campaign donations intriguing is a purported spat between McCarthy and mayoral candidate Jim Merritt’s campaign that recently became public.

In August, after McCarthy had publicly endorsed Merritt’s run for office, she abruptly withdrew her endorsement of the Tacoma architect.

Merritt’s campaign claimed the executive’s withdrawal of support occurred because Merritt had challenged Sound Transit’s commuter rail design through the Dome District at a public meeting. (Merritt is pushing the so-called “post and beam” construction method as an alternative to Sound Transit’s plan, which primarily involves an earthen berm method).

Merritt and his campaign manager, Ronnie Bush, later said that McCarthy – a Sound Transit board member — was angered by Merritt’s comments, and privately told him to issue an apology and back the berm plan, or she’d pull her endorsement. After Merritt didn’t do so, Bush said Rooney called her and told her McCarthy was pulling her support.

McCarthy and Rooney later denied those claims to The News Tribune. McCarthy declined to elaborate on the reasons for pulling her support of Merritt, but said: “I just made a decision that I’m not going to get involved in the City of Tacoma mayor’s race.”

So if that’s the case, then what gives with McCarthy’s recent donation to the Strickland camp?

“I guess I just changed my mind,” McCarthy said during a phone call this afternoon.

The political contribution wasn’t planned, McCarthy said, nor does it have anything to do with Merritt. McCarthy said she recently was at her son’s home, baby-sitting. Strickland, out door-belling the neighborhood, happened to knock on the door. McCarthy invited Strickland in, gave her a glass of water and listened to her stump speech, McCarthy said.

“I was just impressed with what she had to say, and I think she has a lot to offer the City of Tacoma,” McCarthy said. “So, I wrote her a check.”

McCarthy added that she isn’t endorsing Strickland, and noted she already gave $100 to Merritt’s campaign.

“I have given a lot of money to a lot of candidates,” McCarthy said. “It is that season where we give money.”

When asked about Rooney’s later contribution to Strickland, McCarthy said she wasn’t aware of it. “You’ll have to ask Keri about that,” she said.

I’m still waiting to do so, but in the meantime, I noticed that the name “Keri Rawlings-Rooney” still remains listed on the endorsement page of Merritt’s campaign website.

So, this afternoon, I asked Ronnie Bush why, after the recent McCarthy-Merritt spat, Rooney still remains listed among Merritt’s endorsements — even though Rooney apparently has now given money to the other candidate.

Bush responded that she hasn’t “heard from Keri since that day”  when Rooney informed her McCarthy was yanking her endorsement of Merritt.  And since Bush said she hasn’t heard anything indicating otherwise, she assumes that Rooney is still endorsing Merritt.

“Keri Rooney, for the record, has told me multiple times that Jim Merritt was the best candidate of the two and that he would win,” Bush said.

Bush added, “It was a big surprise for me to see (McCarthy’s and Rooney’s) donations” to Strickland, “since both Pat and Keri had indicated to me for months that they endorsed Jim for mayor.”

Update:  Keri Rooney replied to my email Friday evening, confirming her donation to Strickland. Here’s what her email said:

Hello Lewis,

I received your email and I would like to respond.  Yes, I did donate to Marilyn Strickland.  I also donated to Jim Merritt.  I choose not to engage in a back and forth dialog with Ronnie Bush.

Keri Rooney