Senior Senator worried about short-term cash flow issues
by Brian Leubitz
Senator Dianne Feinstein has about $5 million in her campaign accounts, according to her June reports. How much is really in those accounts remains a mystery. As her treasurer, Kinde Durkee, seems to have been in the habit of using her clients accounts as her personal piggy banks, your guess is as good as the Senator’s.
But, you know, Sen. Feinstein can do something about that. After all, she is the spouse of one Richard C. Blum, who has $5 million checks just laying around the house. So, she put one of those towards her campaign, this time under a hopefully more reliable treasurer. But despite her sagging poll numbers, this is it:
“That is my intention at the present time to try to work it out so that it’s possible,” Feinstein said Tuesday. “The effort is simply to replace the money that is lost.”
Feinstein will transfer the money to her campaign by the end of September. Candidates and incumbents can spend an unlimited amount of personal funds on their own campaigns, although Feinstein is not expected now to commit any more of her own money beyond the initial $5 million, according to sources close to the campaign.(Politico)
Though she hasn’t actually drawn any competitors yet, somebody will show up. Apparently not Meg Whitman, and let’s not kid ourselves about Schwarzenegger. But, it would be hard to point to any current Republican elected official that would be competitive with Feinstein, they are just too far to the right. And even Whitman was unable to buy the office. Whether the lack of a true primary is able to allow a Whitman-esque competitor stay away from the right-wing things you have to say remains to be seen.
But there will be some sort of challenge, and Sen. Feinstein will have some cash to deal with it. I suppose it is time to give up on that whole debate on who should replace her for the time being.
Somebody? Anybody? Please?…. Surely in a state as large as California there’s a Ned Lamont out there to her Joe Lieberman.
Otherwise, is it just gonna be between Feinstein, some corporate Republican robot, and the birther queen?
Michael Reagan has said that he is not crazy enough to run for the US Senate. Are there some benchmarks here for crazy? Does he feel that he needs to get to a Sharron Angle or Christine O’Donnell level of crazy to run? Or is he working on more of a Jim DeMint with a splash of Jim Vitter for flavor? Is he setting goals? I thought he was pretty darned crazy. I guess he has high standards.
Though I’m sure they lost less, the California Young Democrats have had their account frozen by the bank that turned a blind eye to Durkee’s shell game. Since they don’t have a rich husband who can kick in to make up the frozen/missing funds, they’re in much worse shape. Same goes for a lot of smaller organizations and candidates. DiFi would earn more points in the state if she got hubby to pony up for the Young Dems or the LA DCC.