Here's an update to the Apples-to-Apples fundraising comparison, powered by today's 2009 reporting deadline enforced by the state Campaign Finance Board. Click on the image for a full-size version.
Steve Kelley's final numbers have been updated, and some specifics on Matt Entenza's line have been updated as well. We've also added in R.T. Rybak's totals, which bend the curve a bit -- he raised a bunch of money extremely quickly, but as noted in the previous post, this was somewhat expected.
Update: according to a source on Tom Bakk's campaign, his dollars/donor number listed above is a bit high -- it should actually be around $163. This is a result of listing on 2009 donors, but using the total fundraising to date number in the numerator.
There have been lots of fundraising numbers flying around in the past couple of weeks as gubernatorial candidates look to spin their prowess on the donor circuit into positive press and grassroots support. But can we compare their numbers on an apples-to-apples basis?
Sure. Here's how (and a big thanks goes to Robin Marty for helping me assemble these numbers).
This might be a little difficult to read, so let's break it down: the columns you'll want to watch closely are all the way to the right, in Dollars Per Month and Dollars Per Donor.
The idea here is that candidates started raising money at different times from different people, so we want to get an idea of how quickly they're raising it and from whom -- a higher Dollars Per Donor figure means the candidate is hitting up fewer donors for higher amounts, and a lower figure means the campaign can go back to those same donors repeatedly for more donations.
Dollars Per Month can tell us how quickly a candidate taps out their fundraising "base" -- if the candidate has only been in the race for a few months but has raised a bunch of money, there's a decent chance this rate will fall off quickly as they get into tougher-to-get dollars. The same thing happened to Paul Thissen after he pulled in "low-hanging fruit" in 2008.
So with Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Matt Entenza, and Paul Thissen all bunched up around $182-$184 per donor, we don't know a whole lot about their takes other than that MAK has raised money faster than the other two (by virtue of being an official candidate for less time than the others. Steve Kelley -- whose totals here are accurate, as confirmed by his campaign this week, btw -- has a lower dollars-per-donor figure, so on average he can hit those same donors up for more money this year than the others can. Ditto Tom Rukavina.
On the GOP side, it's tough to do any kind of comparison, since at last check we still don't know how many individual donors Tom Emmer had in 2009.
Update: R.T. Rybak just reported a total fundraising take of $278,000 since November of last year -- breaking down the numbers as accurately as possible leaves Rybak with $92,667/month for his gubernatorial committee, and a dollars-per-donor figure of $200. Rybak is in a unique position in that he spent all of last year campaigning for reelection, so he had a custom-build fundraising call list waiting for him last November. Rybak reported having $25,000 cash-on-hand at the end of 2009 -- but a big fundraising push at the beginning of this year as well. His fundraising came from a total of 691 donors.
Metro-vs-Greater Minnesota comparisons would be quite interesting for Rybak.
Tarryl Clark has raised more than $600,000 in 22 weeks since joining the race to unseat Michele Bachmann (MN-06). Her fourth quarter (Q4) report will show almost $300,000 raised. With solid fundraising like this and a rumor that her opponent in the DFL endorsement race, Maureen Reed, has lost her finance director, this is very good news indeed.
Senator Tarryl Clark, candidate for Congress in Minnesota's 6th Congresional District, today announced that her campaign ended 2009 having raised more than $600,000 from a grassroots network of more than 5,000 individual donors in just 22 weeks.
While national fundraising reports are still coming in, Clark's 4th Quarter fundraising puts her once again among the top-fundraising challengers in the country. In the 4th Quarter alone, Clark's campaign raised $293,953 from an incredible 2906 donors - including 2622 new donors.
"Our thousands of small-dollar donors are a testament to the enthusiasm for Tarryl's campaign, and a clear demonstration of the kind of grassroots network we're building to win this election," said campaign manager Zach Rodvold. "Minnesotans are excited about Tarryl's agenda of standing up for them to create jobs and deliver results, and tired of Michele Bachmann's relentless pursuit of her own agenda."
Clark ended the year with just under $389,000 cash on hand.
(Clark campaign email press release)
The Minnesota Governor campaigns are beginning to release their fundraising numbers for 2009. There is one thing that is becoming increasingly clear, we DFLers are kicking butt and the Republicans really should be releasing their numbers late on a Friday afternoon so that nobody notices.
Let's begin with numbers that aren't really all that impressive. Tom Emmer's numbers are not very good. You can read his press release here. He sure does spin it so it sounds better than it is.
Compare that with Matt Entenza reeling in $300,000 in 2009, Paul Thissen raising $370,000 since November '08 ($253K in 2009), and even Tom Rukavina beat Emmer, raking in $135,000. Even Rukavina beat Emmer. Repeat that to yourselves a few times. Wow.
For those of you who have never tried going to a stranger's house, just to join a "meet and greet" party for a candidate, I urge you to try it. It took me a long time before I did.
In a "meet and greet" party, there is time to just socialize with a candidate. There is time just to know the person before evaluating the candidate. And especially with local candidates, there is a feeling of just being with neighbors.
This video is taken in very low light, so I apologize for the clarity. I think you get the feeling of the close knit comfort of a small living room, filled with people. Although this is edited for time constraints, people do have the time to ask questions and then to ask follow-up questions. No debate timer is about to go off! I really like that relaxed atmosphere compared to debates.
Matt Bostrom is running for Ramsey County Sheriff, and here is his social introduction and background, at a "meet and greet" party:
Aside from being former senator Norm Coleman's buddy, Jeff Larson also runs a very successful communications and fundraising company, FLS Connect. Norm's campaign and Senate office contracted FLS Connect for upwards of $1.5 million worth of work. Larson is also slightly famous for helping outfit Sarah Palin for her appearances at St. Paul's Republican National Convention in 2008.
Larson has not been immune to controversy.
Larson gave his little buddy Norm a sweetheart apartment deal in Washington, DC. The rates were well below market prices and he even allowed Norm to skip rent payments and even pay with furniture that then remained on the property, probably for Norm to use.
His latest controversy is the equivalent of being posed the question when did you stop beating your wife?
An Arizona man who spent 10 months working as a telephone solicitor for a Minnesota-based Republican fundraising firm claims that the company regularly hires convicted felons who have unrestricted access to political donors' credit card numbers.
Minnesota political consultant Jeff Larson - a founding partner in the company, FLS Connect, which has offices in St. Paul and Phoenix - vehemently denied that any ex-convicts working at FLS have access to credit card information.
(St. Paul Legal Ledger's Capitol Report)
Given my role in carping about the DFL's money issues (among others) I would be extremely remiss if I didn't cover some good news from the state party.
Remember the potential FEC fine the party was facing for the alleged commingling of state and federal committee funds? Yeah, turns out that's not happening -- and MinnPost's Doug Grow is left holding the bag. Check out the current text of his original piece:
Update: Neil Reiff, the Washington-based attorney who represents the DFL in matters relating to the FEC, issued a strong denial this afternoon that the party has troubles with the under-staffed commission. "I can categorically say there are no pending FEC enforcement actions with the Minnesota Democratic Party,'' Reiff said. "What I find ironic is that it's a violation of federal law to reveal this kind of information. If they had this information and were leaking it, they'd be breaking the law.''
While refusing to answer specific questions about DFL financial issues, party officials are claiming any money woes they're running into are simply the result of the cycles of politics. In non-election years - such as this year, they say - contributions fall and books are harder to balance.
...
Update: Upon reading the first version of the MinnPost story about the DFL's financial problems, a version that did not include a strong denial of FEC action from attorney Reiff, Melendez said he had filed a complaint with the Minnesota News Council. The complaint states:
"On 5 August 2009, in a story titled 'DFL's money woes: IRS problems and possible election fines,' Doug Grow wrote that 'there are reports, from unnamed sources within the party, that the DFL is on the verge of being fined $50,000 by the Federal Elections Commission for illegally co-mingling funds. That would mean the party, which has several different bank accounts which are used for different purposes, had switched money that was donated for one purpose to an account used for a different purpose.'
"Mr. Grow's statement is false. There is no pending investigation 'by the Federal Elections Commission for illegally co-mingling funds,' let alone any impending fine. Mr. Grow spoke personally with DFL Executive Director Andrew J. O'Leary, who told Mr. Grow that this anonymous source was giving him false information. Mr. Grow did not give that side of the story, nor, evidently, did he contact the Federal Election Commission, before which there are no pending actions relating to the Minnesota DFL Party."
Update: A spokeswoman for the FEC said this morning that "if there was a pending complaint, we couldn't comment on it." A chart on the FEC's website shows that the DFL frequently has received requests for more information on its monthly reports to the FEC, but that is not unusual, the spokeswoman said.
It's kind of a big deal for an MNC complaint to be filed in a matter like this. For Grow to have essentially reprinted a Brodkorb-quality press release and essentially ignored a direct refutation of that attack -- which, apparently, he obtained but did not print -- is a very, very bad thing to have done.
Ladies and gentlemen, your liberal-bias media. This is kind of a tough thing in the "new media" however -- how exactly does one "print" an addendum or correction like this? Updating the original story doesn't tell Google oh, hey, there's an update over here! Perhaps that's another discussion, and I digress.
So as a person who's offered considerable criticism of the DFL leadership in recent weeks, it's my responsibility to offer credit where credit is due to Brian Melendez for sticking up for himself and his party in the face of attacks from the GOP and a complicit media source. Good job, Chairman.
As for the other issues that have been going on, I'm hearing that positive things are happening, but I'm working on getting some folks in the know on the record before I write something that opens me up to a hailstorm of vile insults and criticism. Lesson learned, I suppose.
When Howard Dean assumed control of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) DC insiders assumed he'd suck, said so frequently and predicted the Democrats would be in trouble. Of course, the reverse was true. He instituted an aggressive grassroots strategy he called the 50-state strategy. The programs goal was to find candidates in absolutely every district and send a DNC organizer into absolutely every district.
The effect was we stretched the limited Republican resources and when Republican candidates/incumbents faltered, we were in a position to win.
Now that VA Gov. Tim Kaine is running the show, maybe this is all a thing of the past. Now those of us outside of DC are worried about the DNC.
Much attention has been paid to the Democratic political juggernaut, and to the weaknesses of the GOP in general and the RNC in particular.
You wouldn't know it from their respective April fundraising numbers: The RNC outraised the DNC by $1.3 million.
(Politico)
So let's try and figure this news out. Republicans less popular than ever - check. Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney the leading voices for the Republicans - check. Michael Steele at the helm of the RNC - check. Economy still in the tank because of Republican economic policies - check. Republican strategy is to block anything Dems try to do - check. Pusillanimous Wuss Harry Reid still cannot do anything in the Senate without a 60th vote (Al Franken) - check. Republicans promising to stretch the MN-SEN appeals until h3!! freezes over - check.
Therefore, the RNC outraises the DNC. Makes perfect sense to me. Cuz they always have.
Howard Dean's DNC always fell short of RNC fundraising. It was the DCCC (the House committee) that had 20 times that of the NRCC at several points during the 2008 election cycle. The DSCC generally led the NRSC, but barely.
What we should be getting worried about is the DNC's 50-state strategy. That is worth worrying about. Will Kaine continue this program?
Norm Coleman thought he was being greeted by some of his supporters outside an event on Sunday. He was wrong.
If you would like to give a dollar a day to defeat Republicans in 2010 you only need to follow the link on the right side of the page -- or just click here.
Update from Joe: This event was in the works for a while, and it's great to see it go off without a hitch -- except, of course, for former Senator Coleman. This was a great way to demonstrate directly to Coleman the consequences of his continued efforts to deny Minnesota its full representation in Washington -- and those consequences continue to rise with each day his attempt to overturn the certified election results continues. Great work by all involved.
While the entire left leaning blogosphere has been pointing our fingers and laughing at all the crazy things that Michelle Bachmann says, the Sixth Congressional district representative has been hauling in the dough. Apparently there is a method to her madness. In Q1 Bachmann raised $313,686, a 20% increase over her haul from Q1 '07 and almost 30% more than the next biggest Minnesota fundraiser, Eric Paulson. In fact the three Republican members of the Minnesota delegation collectively raised more money than the five Democratic members.
On the surface this looks like bad news for state Democrats, but there are some caveats, the biggest one being that none of the seats held by Democrats are likely to be competitive in 2010; of the five congressional races that Democrats won last November Tim Walz 62%-33% victory was the closest. So there isn't really any fundraising pressure on any of the Democrats, but for Bachmann and Paulson, both of whom can expect vigorous challenges in 2010, there is a very pressing need for cash now.
In Michelle Bachmann's case:
In addition to her growing national profile, the Republican's fundraising success likely also stems from concern in some quarters that she could be financially vulnerable in 2010.
Her 2008 opponent, El Tinklenberg, had nearly $453,000 on hand at the end of the election and still has $183,503. Tinklenberg gave away significant chunks of his war chest, returning $250,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and much smaller amounts to Minnesota members' PACs and election committees.
(MinnPost)
Regardless of that, over $300,000 in the first quarter of a non-election year for a two-term member not in any kind of leadership role is an impressive haul. For some context, Bachmann raised more money than Colin Peterson and Jim Oberstar combined, both of whom are chairmen of powerful House committees. Michelle Bachmann, all by herself, raised half as much as the five Democrats combined. Clearly her patented crazyspeak has been a boost for her fundraising just as it has also been a boost for our web traffic, so I guess it's a win-win.
(I've been writing several posts over the last 24 hours about Michele Bachmann, but Populista has provided us with a great summary of her insanity and the degree to which she's embarrassed Minnesota and America. - promoted by Joe Bodell)
Michelle Bachmann has turned into quite a hot topic here in the netroots after her disgraceful performance on Hardball that that you can watch for yourself here.
It's hard to even begin on how horrifying that McCarthyesque, hateful interview was. But a lot of us Minnesotans have known about Michelle Bachmann and her hateful, extreme ways for years. Thankfully we've got a real shot at beating her this year, and you can help send her and her hateful brand of politics packing. Keep reading to find out how!
Just a few things left to do at this point -- some big speech or something is due tonight.
Let's make no mistake about it: the Democratic Party has made history already by nominating Barack Obama. It would have made history had it nominated Hillary Clinton. The comparison to the Republican Party, which has been forced to pare down its own platform in deference to a nominee who doesn't agree with anything ever many of its planks, does not favor the GOP and is a great sign for the Democrats and Obama going forward.
While all this hoopla is going on in Denver, let's not forget the great news here in Minnesota: DFL congressional candidates Tim Walz and Ashwin Madia announced great fundraising totals in the pre-primary filing period; $250,000 for Walz and over $352,000 for Madia. Walz was already crushing his opponents financially, and could afford to cruise a bit, but Madia's total, which extrapolates to more than $700,000 over the full quarter, is a really, really, really good sign.
I've gotten very positive reports from Denver and the several events he attended there -- this guy is already building a national reputation, kicking ass and taking names.
Still waiting on Madia's opponent, Republican Erik Paulsen, to file his pre-primary report. Paulsen raised $320,000 during the reporting period, meaning Madia outraised him for the second reporting period in a row.
I've just learned from a source close to the Madia campaign that they are reporting $352,000 in fundraising receipts for the period from July 1 to August 20th. Not only is Madia continuing to raise a ton of money, but he's now doing it at an even faster clip than he did in the 2nd Quarter. He has now raised an impressive $1.4 million, and has nearly $1 million ($913,000) on hand.
It's no surprise, then, that Madia has beat Paulsen to the punch with his first campaign ad. Expect Madia to continue to beat Paulsen in almost every single aspect of this race.
Madia's excellent fundraising is drawing national attention. The NRCC is spending money for Paulsen in an attempt to get ahead of Madia, but the Republicans just can't quite seem to get on top. Madia seems to be thoroughly in command of this race right now.
Oh, did I mention that Madia still doesn't accept corporate PAC money?
He does so by a couple of lengths: Madia raised almost $693,000 in the second quarter.
MAPLE GROVE - Ashwin Madia, the DFL-endorsed candidate in Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District, today announced that his campaign raised $692,940.62 during the second quarter of 2008.
Since announcing his candidacy in October 2007, Madia has raised a total of $1,052,812.05.
"The outpouring of support we have received shows how much the people of the 3rd Congressional District believe in this campaign," said Iraq war veteran and DFL-endorsed candidate for Congress Ashwin Madia. "I am honored to have the support of so many Minnesotans and am thrilled to see the local dedication to make our community a better place for middle class families. This campaign is about taking our country in a new direction. We are fighting to turn our economy around, reduce gas prices and responsibly bring our troops home from Iraq - a message that is clearly resonating throughout the district."
Based on numbers provided in a press release issued by Republican opponent Erik Paulsen on July 8th, Madia out-raised Paulsen in the second quarter. Additionally, Madia's cash on hand is $738,148.83, shrinking Paulsen's cash on hand advantage by 27 percent compared to the first quarter of 2008, which ended March 31. Madia's fundraising accomplishment comes despite not having won the DFL endorsement until April 12, and despite Paulsen's clear sailing for the Republican endorsement during the same period. Unlike Paulsen, Madia does not accept corporate PAC contributions.
Wow.
Madia and campaign manager Stu Rosenberg have played a darned good game of rope-a-dope here -- they've attracted attention to their fundraising announcement without tipping their hand. Outraising a candidate with a decade of legislative experience and the backing of a popular (yet more moderate) retiring incumbent is a tremendous accomplishment. The media cycle this week should prove quite favorable to the Madia campaign.
Speaking of which, it's worth making note of the positive changes in Team Madia over the course of this past quarter. When Rosenberg came on board, replacing Jonathan Murray, everyone lavished praise on Murray's tenure -- however, judging by these results, Rosenberg is definitely the right person to be running this campaign through November. They've just hired a new press secretary, their field director is top-notch, the DCCC is backing them up with a big media buy, and they have the fundraising discipline to make this a great race.
Minnesotans and Minnesota campaigns count on the blogs to tell important political stories and sides of stories that might not otherwise get told. That's important enough -- but now the Minnesota blogs are also giving campaigns a boost through participation in initiatives like Steve Sarvi Blog Day and ActBlue fundraising pushes.
Thank you, blogs and blog readers -- and keep up the great work!
