CA Congressional Fundraising A Go-Go

Brian is wrong, that does not take care of the horse race for the day! Today is the deadline for Congressional incumbents and challengers to declare their fundraising totals for the second quarter of 2009, and some numbers on the California candidates jump out.  If I write “incomplete,” that’s because their FEC report hasn’t popped up yet.  I’ll fill in when they become available:

We’ll start with the special election in CA-10:

John Garamendi: $300,000 raised, $260,000 CoH, $54,000 debt

Mark DeSaulnier: incomplete $212,000 raised, $136,000 CoH, $77,000 debt

Joan Buchanan: incomplete $64,000 raised, $179,000 CoH, $308,000 debt

Anthony Woods: $105,000 raised, $65,000 CoH

Adriel Hampton: incomplete $22,500 raised, $269.77 CoH, $346.82 debt

Waiting on more info on this one.  John Garamendi’s number came from 350 people, almost $1,000 a head.  That suggests no grassroots fundraising base.  Anthony Woods had over twice as many donors, who could be tapped again.  UPDATE: OK, this is interesting.  Joan Buchanan raised a fairly paltry amount considering the primary is in six weeks, but she took out a $250,000 loan and has a significant amount of debt.  She seems to be blowing through operating expenses too.  Likewise, Mark DeSaulnier, who raised a decent amount, has over half of his cash on hand in debt.  And I missed that John Garamendi has $50,000 in debt as well.  Suddenly, Anthony Woods has more debt-free cash on hand than anyone in the field but Garamendi.

CA-03:

Gary Davis: $34,000 raised, $30,000 CoH

Dr. Amerish Bera: $288,000 raised, $286,000 CoH

Dan Lungren (inc.): incomplete $233,000 raised, $322,000 CoH

Bill Slaton: $113,000 raised, $224,000 CoH, $116,000 debt

That is an eye-popping number for Amerish Bera, and lest you see it as a doctor self-funding, only $4,800 came from the candidate.  I was shocked by that total.  We’ll see what Dan Lungren ends up raising later today, but it’s entirely possible that Bera will have MORE cash on hand than the incumbent (Lungren only had $121,000 on hand at the end of April, with $12,000 in debts).  Wow. UPDATE So Bera outraised Lungren, but he ekes out a cash on hand lead.  As an incumbent, however, that’s a weak performance. UPDATE II: Bill Slaton claimed to some that he raised $227,000 in three weeks, but half of that comes in the form of a personal loan to the campaign.  His actual cash on hand is much less than Bera.  But $113,000 in three weeks isn’t bad.

CA-45:

Steve Pougnet: $201,000 raised, $203,000 CoH

Mary Bono Mack (inc): $166,000 raised, $448,000 CoH

Steve Pougnet outraised the incumbent in Q2, which is quite impressive.  Mary Bono Mack starts out with a bigger war chest, so he has some work to do, but this is an excellent start, and I think Pougnet has a natural fundraising base that will only expand once his story gets out.

CA-44:

Bill Hedrick: $65,000 raised, $66,000 CoH

Ken Calvert (inc.): incomplete $407,000 raised, $384,000 CoH

Certainly an improvement over the first quarter for Bill Hedrick, and all of the money came from Southern California, which means he has a solid fundraising and volunteer base locally.  He needs to spread that out nationally to maximize his potential in this winnable race.

CA-26:

Russ Warner: $60,000 raised, $58,000 CoH

David Dreier (inc.): $138,000 raised, $872,000 CoH

Believe it or not, Dreier actually had a much bigger war chest last cycle.  Russ Warner needs to do better to be competitive, but he’s actually in a slightly better position than two years ago.

CA-48:

Beth Krom: $76,000 raised, $98,000 CoH

John Campbell (inc.): $223,000 raised, $470,000 CoH

This was a tough quarter for Krom, with the tragic death of her son taking up a lot of time in the final weeks.  Campbell ramped up his fundraising a bit after Krom beat him in the last quarter.

CA-50:

Francine Busby: $160,000 raised, $136,000 CoH

Tracy Emblem: $22,000 raised, $15,000 CoH

Brian Bilbray (inc.): incomplete $325,000 raised, $388,000 CoH

A solid quarter of fundraising for Francine Busby, notwithstanding that police action at one of her fundraisers while guests were pepper sprayed.  UPDATE: Brian Bilbray had a good quarter.

CA-24:

Elton Gallegly (inc.): $42,000 raised, $831,000 CoH

The field is still getting together in this race, but I wanted to see Elton Gallegly’s fundraising output, which is somewhat pathetic.  He does have enough of a war chest that he doesn’t necessarily need to get moving on that yet, however.

UPDATE the last: Swing State Project has a full roundup with a number of other interesting tidbits.

• In CA-04, Tom McClintock raised a bundle – $341,000 – but he still has over $100,000 in outstanding debt and only $245,000 CoH.  Some fiscal conservative.

• In CA-10, one Republican is showing financial viability, David Harmer, with a $175,000 haul (but that’s based on the first six months, not just the quarter).  He has $144,000 CoH and $17,000 in outstanding debt.  And his ideological viability in that district is, shall we say, suspect, though he is likely to reach a runoff.

• In CA-11, which I think is safe, Jerry McNerney raised $288,000 and has $519,000 cash on hand.  One of his potential opponents, Brad Goehring, would seem to have a good financial position with $259,000 CoH, but he only raised $14,000 for the quarter and has $250,000 in debt due to a massive loan.  The same with Jon Del Arroz, who guaranteed a huge loan for himself and has as much in debt as he does in cash on hand.  These guys are wasting money, in my opinion.

• I added Ken Calvert’s numbers in CA-44.  Clearly the NRCC is protecting him by bolstering his fundraising.

• CA-47 is on the fringe of being competitive, but Van Tran had a good quarter, beating Loretta Sanchez (barely) in fundraising:

Sanchez: $242,000 raised, $714,000 CoH

Tran: $253,000 raised, $251,000 CoH, $10,000 debt

Tran gave himself $5,500 to boost his total.  And Loretta has a pretty large war chest from prior years.  

8 thoughts on “CA Congressional Fundraising A Go-Go”

  1. Who is slated to succeed him as Lt. governor?  is there even a special election for that spank of a job or do they just appoint mike curb?

  2. Joan Buchanan leads all candidates for the September 1st Special Congressional election with $313,000 raised as of 6/30.  She reports a substantial $178,000 cash on hand. She clearly made a decision to run hard from day 1 and that’s what this report reflects — a campaign that is fully staffed to reach voters in every community.  And a campaign that will be fully funded to win.  I also received an email that supporters of Joan Buchanan are hosting over a dozen fundraising events in the next three weeks suggesting that her capacity to raise more money is substantial.    

  3. I live in the 4th CD, which is about a 5 minute hop to get to Lungren’s district. Both Bera and Slaton are going to be formiddable candidates, but Bera’s impressive fundraising came largely from family members that maxed out. I’d be interested in seeing what the NEXT quarter shows when family members can’t be included.

    Slaton’s haul is impressive because he did half of what Bera’s 3-month haul totalled out to be in only 3 weeks. Do the math on a full quarter and we’re looking at some serious dough!

  4. Perhaps Joan Buchanan is borrowing against an expected EMILY’s List endorsement.  But why hasn’t it come yet?

  5. A quick scan of Anthony Woods’ itemized donor list includes only two people from the district.  I am glad that so many people think that what Mr. Woods represents is so important. One would expect that these issues resonate within the district as well, but I don’t think that he has really asked district residents for support yet. sigh

    I think each campaign should offer a breakdown of total funds from within the district and from outside.

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