Reader James tells us that the FEC reports for both
Massa and
Kuhl
are now posted. Kuhl out-raised Massa by roughly $20K, $170K to
$150K. Massa ends the quarter with slightly more cash on hand. $108K
of Massa's fundraising was from individuals, compared to $41K of
Kuhl's.
Comments
The numbers are even more telling.
Kuhl raised $40,874 from individuals.
He only itemized $35,644 of it - of which only $23,169 came from the Western NY area (some of from areas of Rochester, which probably aren't in the district, but we will give him the benifit of the doubt). of the itemized $35,000, $12,000 of it came from out of the district, more than 33% of individual itemized money.
There is an additional $5230 of unitemized money, who knows where that came from. I'm sure Kuhl will say that it all came from the district.
But Kuhl can only document that $23,169 came from the district. Thats a whopping 13.5% of his money. He's going to try to paint Massa as getting support from "liberal interests outside the district", but Kuhl can only show that 13.5% of his money came from the district.
Go figure.
As you note, Massa also gets a good percentage of his money from outside the district. My guess is that this race is going to be a $6-8 million contest. There just isn't that kind of money in the 29th district. Kuhl will try to paint Massa's support as "liberal outsiders." Massa will paint Kuhl's as "corporate donations". And so it goes. I just can't get too excited by either charge.
$6-$8 MILLION? How much was spent last time? That seems pretty darn high!
Last time a little under $4 mil was spent by Massa and Kuhl, and IIRC, another $500K or so by 3rd parties. Massa has vowed to raise $3 mil. Assuming Kuhl keeps pace, and the third parties increase spending (as they already have) $6-8 mil is a reasonable number.
Hmmmm----you are right! Thanks.