The numbers are coming fast-and-furious this morning. State Senator Tarryl Clark has announced a fundraising total of over $600K in her bid to unseat Michele Bachmann in CD6. Let me break down the numbers that just popped into by my inbox:
- Clark’s total fundraising to date: “more than $600,000 from a grassroots network of more than 5,000 individual donors in just 22 weeks.”
- Q4: “$293,953 from an incredible 2906 donors – including 2622 new donors.”
- Cash on hand: $389,000
No matter how you look at those numbers, they’re pretty stunning. This is an off-year, people are hurting, Dems are in a bit of mud nationally, and yet Senator Clark has managed to energize supporters across the country. Sure, this speaks to the dislike of Rep. Bachmann, but it also clearly indicates the Clark Campaign’s fundraising prowess.
Similar to the Gubernatorial campaigns, one has to look at the field as a whole to see the true breadth of support for Dems in this race. Sure, there are 2, not 12, potential DFL candidates here, but one has to look at both to see the whole impact. Maureen Reed, also vying for the DFL endorsement, recently posted her numbers:
- $574,600 total in 2009
- $207,800 in Q4 2009
- $388,000 cash on hand.
The numbers coming out of either of these campaigns are impressive on their own, but combined they send a strong message that there is national interest in this race and DFLers aren’t going to let it slide by without a fight. Don’t get complacent though, because this will be a fight. There’s been an unfortunate attitude in the last couple CD6 cycles among Democrats: Bachmann is nuts, how could we possibly lose? Well, nuts or not, she’s won the last two with decent margins and this is not going to be a friendly year for us nationally. So, we need to dig our heels in, get out the boxing gloves, and duke this one out every inch of the way—don’t get complacent or cynical about this one!
And as one last addendum: Please, please, please, someone keep the IP party out of CD6; I am SO sick of them ruining this. I promise that the average IP voter will be happier with the DFL candidate than with Bachmann, and that’s the reality. An IP candidate WILL NOT WIN in CD6; all they will do is make Bachmann win. </ end rant>
For the record, the Independence Party did endorse El Tinklenberg in CD6 last year, but a spoiler Republican snuck into the IP primary and ran unopposed to snag the IP spot on the ballot. Sucks.
Yeah, I know.
…if my memory is correct, the spoiler’s percentage of votes in the general election was greater than Bachmanns’ margin of victory.
Nice. I’m sure she will squirrel away some of that money so she can run in 2012 when a Democrat will actually have a chance.
this is good, but i’m impressed with Reed too- she raised nearly as much without getting any endorsements from Franken or Oberstar. to have same amount on hand is pretty amazing.
Maureen who? Those are nice numbers for Reed. That is as much of a story as Clark’s fundraising numbers. Clark has quite a bit more name recognition to begin her fundraising with, IMO.
I won’t get to vote in this election, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Bachmann lose this seat.
I went to FEC and ran some numbers.
For the full quarter she raised less money then she did for the third quarter by $15,000. If she was doing a great job feeding her base shouldn’t that number have grown instead of shrinking.
If Tinkleberg could raise one million in one month and if Brown could raise one million in just one day how come the candidate you want to knock off basically the most hated Republican woman running for election can’t raise a million dollars in 22 weeks. Sounds like very weak fundraising ability.
Based on the cash on hand figure she had on 9/30/09 she spent $182,000 thus improving her cash on hand by just $110,000.
Furthermore Bachmann has shown at least for the first two quarters of the 2009 year that she raised most of her money from individual donors.
It’s nice to know you’re dressing up a disasterous fund raising quarter for Tarryl.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Thank you Matt Martin you liberal bloggers for admitting that I was right!
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
what no posting about how Michelle Bachmann in one quarter has outraised Clark for two quarters.
According to your logic Bachmann has the supporters on her side and has done her work while Clark hasn’t!
You feel free to talk about the governors candidates so shouldn’t you apply that standard to this sixth district race.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Why the hell did the media feel compelled to give equal time to someone that shows up at Tarryl Clark’s Campaign kickoff when they reported on the event? Is that standard procedure, or does the Bachmann Camp send out shills to the other candidate’s events in order to capture “earned media??”