WASHINGTON — Election Day 2012 is 16 months away (479 days to be precise, but who’s counting?) but it’s never too early to look at candidates' fundraising numbers.
Campaign fundraising reports are due to the Federal Election Commission today, giving the public a chance to see how well members of Congress (and their prospective challengers) are doing money-wise. In Minnesota, 3rd District Republican Erik Paulsen leads all incumbents and candidates, having raised closed to $400,000 last quarter.
The totals below represent three months of fundraising between April 1 and June 30, the second quarter of 2011. The campaigns also report how much cash they have on hand and the amount of debt they hold, if any.
For a rundown of how much each campaign raised in the first quarter, here’s a great recap.
Here’s what we’ve seen so far from members of the Minnesota delegation, broken down by congressional district. As more numbers come in, we’ll update this post.
U.S. Senate: Incumbent Democrat Amy Klobuchar has $3.3 million in the bank after raising $1.1 million last quarter. Her only declare GOP opponent to this point, Dan Severson, raised a meager $3,700 and has more than $5,000 in debts. Klobuchar is polling well and is considered one of the safest Democratic incumbents in 2012.
1st District:Congressman Tim Walz raised $386,000 last quarter, which his campaign notes is more than twice what he took in at this point in 2009. Walz, a Democrat, has nearly $400,000 on hand. Republican Randy Demmer, a former state representative who unsuccessfully opposed Walz in 2010, reported holding $93,000 in debt from that race.
2nd District: John Kline hauled in $327,000 during the second quarter, a good showing for the senior Republican in the delegation. He now has more than $583,000 on hand.
Credit much of that total to Kline’s chairmanship of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. This time last cycle, Kline held no leadership position and raised only $190,000. But now Kline holds a gavel, and political action committees have begun contributing heavily to his campaign — to the tune of $121,000 this past quarter.
3rd District: Republican Erik Paulsenis the fundraising king in Minnesota this quarter, having raised close to $400,000. He now has $676,000 on hand. Since Michele Bachmann is focusing her efforts of her presidential campaign, Paulsen’s numbers are the highest among Minnesotans actively seeking re-election to the House of Representatives next year.
4th District: Democrat Betty McCollum raised $114,000 last quarter and has $108,000 on hand. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is headlining a fundraiser for McCollum and other Democrats this weekend, so look for that to help buoy her third quarter numbers when they are released in October.
McCollum’s St. Paul-based district is one of the safest in the state.
5th District: Keith Ellison, a Democrat, raised nearly $234,000 last quarter and has $169,000 on hand. Ellison won his 2010 race by 43.5 points.
His only declared opponent, Lynn Torgerson, has raised $17,000, but she contributed more than $13,600 of that herself.
6th District: Michele Bachmann is running for president and no one has declared their candidacy for this race yet (Republicans are waiting to see if she’ll get the party’s nomination or if she’ll come back to defend her seat; Democrats are probably doing the same thing). We have no candidates and, thus, no fundraising to report out of the 6th District.
7th District: Democrat Collin Peterson raised nearly $162,000 last quarter and has $581,00 on hand. Republican Lee Byberg, whom Peterson defeated by nearly 18 points in 2010, raised more than $40,000 but still has nearly $78,000 in debt from last year to retire.
Like Kline, Peterson holds a leadership position on an important committee (House Agriculture, where he is the top Democrat). As such, he received $126,550 from PACs.
8th District: Here’s the race to watch. Republican Chip Cravaack’s stunning upset over thirty-year Congressman James Oberstar last year has made Cravaack one of the Democrats’ top targets in 2012.
He raised $224,000 last quarter and has just under $269,000 on hand.
Three Democrats have said they’ll run against Cravaack: Jeff Anderson, Tarryl Clark and Rick Nolan.
Clark, who unsuccessfully ran against Bachmann in 2010, took in $140,000 in the second quarter and has $130,000 on hand. Remember that Clark raised nearly $5 million running against Bachmann last year. Her numbers today indicate she’s going to lose a lot of her financial backing going up against a lesser-known opponent.
Anderson, a Duluth city councilmember, has raised $30,000 and has $27,000 on hand. Nolan just declared his candidacy this week, so he has no fundraising numbers to report.
In addition to the money Clark and Anderson have raised, outside money has already begun to flow into the district. A Democratic SuperPAC called the House Majority PAC has targeted Cravaack extensively, spending $43,000 on advertising in the 8th district since April. So Cravaack will need to up his fundraising totals (and get some outside help of his own) in order to defend this seat.
It’s important to note that Republicans in the state Legislature passed a redistricting plan that would create a safer district for Cravaack, but DFL Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed that plan. The courts will decide the final layout of the state’s congressional districts.
Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com.
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