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Republican Party gets fundraising ball rolling quickly in new Senate races
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10/10/09 05:09 PM ET
Republicans are off to a strong fundraising start in the newest Senate races on the map.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s (R) announcement Thursday of $2.4 million raised in the third quarter topped a series of good signals for the GOP, who also got strong totals from their new candidates in Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois and New Hampshire.
Perhaps more importantly for his party, Crist’s total kept former state House Speaker Marco Rubio’s (R) surprisingly strong $1 million third quarter in perspective. Though both are running in the GOP primary, Republican leaders, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), have backed Crist.
In Colorado, former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton (R) turned in a strong $505,000 in an abbreviated half-month on the campaign trail. Her total will be far less than Sen. Michael Bennet’s (D-Colo.), but it represents a strong pace for a former statewide official who has always kept a low profile and has never run for office in her own right.
It will also serve as notice that Norton’s primary opponents, who stayed in the race even after she entered it a month ago, will likely be severely outspent.
Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk (R) also stepped up his game in his first quarter as a Senate candidate, pulling in $1.6 million and topping state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’s (D) $1.1 million. Meanwhile, Giannoulias saw two primary opponents put together almost as much money as he did in the quarter – both self-funded extensively – while Kirk far outraised primary opponent Patrick Hughes’s $380,000.
Former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte’s $613,000 raised in just more than two months wasn’t as strong as the others, but the first-time political candidate did manage to outraise Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.).
Hodes, meanwhile, took a step back in the third quarter, raising less than $600,000 after a shoddy first quarter and a much better second quarter. He raised almost as much as Ayotte but banked less than half the money he raised in the quarter, and he only saw his cash on hand increase from $860,000 to $1.1 million.
Ayotte kept the vast majority of her money raised and had $561,000 on hand. She has banked half of Hodes’s cash on hand total in about a quarter of the time.
Another new GOP candidate in an abbreviated quarter, Arkansas state Sen. Gilbert Baker, reported raising $500,000 in a month’s time. He is the early favorite in the GOP primary to face Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), and many were waiting to see whether he could reassert that frontrunner status.
In another race that took on new life in the third quarter, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) beat Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) in their first quarter as official opponents, $1.2 million to $750,000. Melancon officially joined the race in late August, but he had been expected to enter it for a while and was able to raise money through his House account.
He stepped up his fundraising from a $400,000 second quarter, while Vitter repeated his performance from that period.
“At both the committee and candidate levels, Republicans are seeing strong financial support from both the grassroots and independents who are rightfully concerned with the record level of spending and debt we’ve seen from Congress this year,” said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the NRSC, which has nearly equaled its Democratic counterpart in fundraising this year after getting blown out in 2008.
Despite the good signs for the GOP, many reports have yet to come in, including nearly all Democratic incumbents who are being targeted. Democrats should still raise more money overall on the strength of incumbents like Reid, Bennet, Lincoln and Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) spokesman Eric Schultz said those numbers will show how strong Democrats are, despite the environment.
“Democratic challengers and incumbents will be ready and prepared to wage formidable campaigns next year,” he said. “In fact, Democratic donors have grown more motivated to protect and grow our majority as they see Republicans trying to block progress on health care and the economy at every turn.”
Boxer, who led a Field Poll released this week by 14 points over former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (R), has raised a strong $1.6 million.
Specter saw his potential general election opponent, Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), raise a strong $1.5 million, but the incumbent pulled in $2.5 million at a fundraiser with President Barack Obama last month and should easily trump Toomey’s total.
Democrats also got some good news in the form of a so-so start from Bennet’s primary challenger, former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who said he raised more than $200,000 in three weeks after entering the race.
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