Friday, December 5, 2008

Post-General FEC Reports


Last night was the filing deadline for the post-general FEC reports. I took a little time to go through them and compare them to 2006 reports. The following is the amount each Congressional candidate raised in 2008 and 2006. By the way, the total raised by just the winning Congressional candidates is $6.2 million (about $200,000 less than the 2006 election).

Braley raised $1.1 million in 2008 and $2.5 million in 2006
Loebsack raised $956,000 in 2008 and $450,000 in 2006
Boswell raised $1.5 million in 2008 and $2.1 million in 2006
Latham raised $1.6 million in 2008 and $1.1 million in 2006
King raised $1 million in 2008 and $645,000 in 2006

The glaring lesson to be learned from these numbers is that we must support our candidates in the tough campaigns. Braley raised $1.3 million less this election cycle than he did in 2006. Boswell raised $604,000 less. Those dollars are going somewhere either here in Iowa (against Latham and King or to the Democrat Party) or against other great candidates like Frankin to our north or Shadegg out of Arizona. At the same time King and Latham are both raising hundreds of thousands of dollars more to fend off candidates of this election cycle and to also prevent future candidates from running against them. They must keep their margins up.

These fundraising numbers show what not to do if you are a Republican strategist. Sure Schmett and Hartsuch weren’t the most aggressive candidates but they are out their campaigning and we must utilize them to at least make Braley and Boswell raise and spend some money.

I applaud King and Latham for stepping up and taking this election very seriously. Latham has always been great at raising money. King on the other hand never seemed to show much interest in it. This time King has proven himself a serious campaigner and deserves a good Constitution Daily pat on the back. Either one of these guys can do whatever they want with their careers at this point. Iowa is very lucky to have them representing us.

So now we need to get out there and recruit some Congressional candidates to run and raise some money. Once they have committed we must get behind them financially or we will have a replay of this election.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tom Latham for Governor.