fundraising

Eric Earling over at Sound Politics has a fascinating take on what fundraising really means. Seems Dino Rossi needed a little pep talk after being beaten, handily and consistently, by Governor Chris Gregoire in the money take.

Monday was the deadline for reporting April contributions and expenditures for campaigns here in Washington. Now that six months remain until election day, PolitickerWA.com will begin a monthly rundown of the financial status of the state's top races.

Here is how things stand as of April 30, 2008. The first number listed is contributions, the second number is expenditures and the third number is the difference between the two. Precluding any unusual circumstances, that third number is equal to cash on hand. The candidate with the most cash on hand is listed at the top of each section.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire: Photo by Getty ImagesOn the eve of Tuesday's visit from presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, Chris Gregoire's gubernatorial campaign is hoping that ill feelings toward the Arizona senator will help its own electoral chances. They are hitting McCain on the state Democrats' main talking point: that he let down the Evergreen State economy by shepherding a large Air Force tanker contract to Boeing rival Airbus.

"Tomorrow, presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain comes to Washington for a $33,100/plate Republican fundraiser. Ironically, his plane lands at Boeing Field," Gregoire finance director Tracy Newman said in an e-mail to supporters. "Senator McCain led the fight in Washington D.C. to rescind a major contract awarded to Boeing to build tanker planes. Recently, a ‘new' contract worth over 9,000 Washington jobs and $40 billion dollars was awarded to a European company."

Governor Chris Gregoire's campaign sent out an e-mail today announcing an updated estimate on their April fundraising total. Last week they suggested that they had brought in roughly a million dollars.

After a second recount, the Gregoire campaign has updated the actual total. Now they are stating that they have earned more than $1.3 million dollars for the month from 6,352 contributors.

This is more than double the Rossi campaign's estimate of $625,000 for April, and potentially gives the Gregoire camp a large cash on hand boost after Rossi had erased  Gregoire's financial advantage during her legislative session contribution freeze.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi recently received his 30,746th contributor. Normally, word of such an uncommon number would not be newsworthy, but in this case the Rossi campaign is making a big deal of it.

The reason is that four years ago the campaign only had 30,745 contributors. When Rhonda Ray Wells of Auburn gave Rossi $50, she broke that record a full six months before the general election. Dino Rossi visited Wells' home to celebrate the milestone, and presented her with a signed copy of his book, Lessons in Leadership, Business, Politics and Life.

Dino RossiThe Dino Rossi campaign has told PolitickerWA.com that they are estimating a take of $625,000 for the month of April. This is less than the $920,000 Rossi brough in for March but still puts his total contribution level at an impressive $4.4 million for the cycle.

His opponent, Gov. Chris Gregoire, is rumored to have raised a million dollars last month after a long fundraising freeze.

Expenditures for both campaigns are still unknown, so cash on hand levels will have to wait a week.

Washington Gov. Chris GregoireGov. Chris Gregoire, who closed out the month of April with a last minute call to supporters in an e-mail asking them to cap off the month on a strong note.

"The media, undecided voters and my Republican opponent are all lining up to see how much support we have after our first 30 days," Gregoire said in the e-mail. "A donation before midnight tonight sends a message they can't ignore: We want to continue taking on challenges and getting results."

It seems to have worked. A source at the campaign told PolitickerWA.com that they are expecting about a million dollars for the month of April. Much of that came during the fundraiser with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. That even brought in more than $300,000. Not a bad way to formally kick off a campaign.

On Tuesday the Spokesman-Review's Rich Roesler compiled a list of the top state senators in terms of cash on hand in their campaigns, whether they are running this year or in 2010.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (D-Spokane) leads the way with $131,104 followed by Sen. Margarita Prentice (D-Renton), which makes sense considering their power and the DemocraticSen. Lisa Brown (D-Spokane) lean of the state, but following those two are five Republicans. Vancouver's Don Benton has $107,842 and Minority Leader Mike Hewitt (R-Walla Walla) has $102,199, while Joe Zarelli (R-Ridgefield), Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville) and Bob Morton (R-Kettle Falls) aren't far behind.

So while the leadership caucus may not be terribly successful, as came to light during the Pam Roach controversy earlier this year, Republican State Senators are performing relatively well.

First came a Democratic Presidential candidate who fell short of the mark, as Governor Chris Gregoire announced last week she would host a fundraiser featuring special guest Bill Richardson, the New Mexico Governor and fourth place finisher in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

Now Gregoire has the help of the "real deal," 2004 nominee and current Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. PolitickerWA.com has obtained an e-mail sent to Kerry's supporters asking for their financial support to help Gregoire's re-election campaign.

With a decisive primary election on tap today in the Keystone State and still no presumptive Democratic nominee, Washington Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz is hoping that state Democrats will rally around the race in order to donate to the Party.

"As you are perhaps painfully aware," Pelz said in an e-mail sent out to supporters, "our Party doesn't have a candidate for President yet, and the other side does."

He points to the fact that in past elections nominees have been on the ground at this stage in the race, building organizations with their own money. Now, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both still spending money to win the Party's nomination, Pelz says the state Party needs to take care of those basics until the summer.