In cash race, McAuliffe leads among Democrats
Published: June 2, 2009
If money talks in politics, voters will be hearing a lot from the three Democratic candidates for governor during the next week.
Perhaps Terry McAuliffe will be the loudest, with $1.2 million to spend in the countdown to next Tuesday's primary.
That trumps Brian J. Moran's $707,000 cash balance and is about twice the nearly $522,000 held by R. Creigh Deeds.
Unopposed for his party's nomination for governor, Republican Bob McDonnell is sitting on $4.9 million.
In the latest fundraising period, April 1-May 27, McDonnell harvested $3.7 million from 2,159 donors, including $750,000 from the Republican Governors Association.
Yesterday was the deadline for statewide and House of Delegates candidates to report fundraising and spending to the Virginia State Board of Elections.
The Virginia Public Access Project, a watchdog of money in politics, posted the latest figures on its Web site.
Money is crucial to communicating via television, radio and direct mail, as well as identifying and mustering votes for a Democratic primary that could be decided by turnout.
McAuliffe, a McLean resident who is a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, continued to lead in fundraising. He collected $1.8 million and pushed his total to $6.9 million.
That advantage has allowed him to blanket the airwaves with commercials, including a television spot in pricey, vote-rich Northern Virginia.
Moran's fundraising, which previously lagged, has improved, which is allowing him to run his first TV ad. Moran, a former state delegate from Alexandria, raised $844,000 for a total of $3.8 million.
He said yesterday that he now has the cash to get out his message and run an aggressive voter-mobilization effort.
Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, raised $676,428 in the most recent period. His total is $3.4 million.
A Virginia Public Access Project analysis shows gubernatorial prospects raising more at this point in the campaign than in 2005, but the difference can be tied to intraparty competition.
Candidates in both parties have raised $25.4 million, compared with $20.2 million in 2005.
Four years ago, there was a nominal contest for the Republican nomination for governor and none on the Democratic side.
In 2009, Democrats are deciding nominations for governor and lieutenant governor by primary. Republicans had a three-way convention fight for attorney general.
Fundraising is lagging down-ticket.
Both parties' candidates for lieutenant governor have raised about $5 million, compared with $6.6 million in 2005.
Those running for attorney general are reporting about $3.9 million, compared with $4.7 million four years ago.
The recession has cut into fundraising, but national money has flooded into Virginia, which is one of two states electing a governor this year.
The other is New Jersey. Because both states were carried by Barack Obama in November, the elections may be viewed as referendums on the new administration.
Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or
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Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or .
Money on hand
Candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general reported having these amounts of cash on hand, as of May 27. Figures are rounded:GOVERNOR
Bob McDonnell,
Republican nominee-------------------------$4.9 million
R. Creigh Deeds,
Democratic candidate-------------------------$522,000
Terry McAuliffe,
Democratic candidate-------------------$1.2 million
Brian J. Moran,
Democratic candidate-------------------------$707,000
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
Bill Bolling,
Republican nominee-------------------------$929,000
Jody Wagner,
Democratic candidate-------------------------$243,000
Mike Signer,
Democratic candidate-------------------------$183,000
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Ken Cuccinelli,
Republican nominee-------------------------$135,000
Stephen C. Shannon,
Democratic nominee-------------------------$1 million
SOURCES: Virginia Public Access Project and candidate campaigns
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Reader Reactions
Fred I’m well educated in facts not playing silly guilt by association games as you play. I find it amusing you call me partisan; all of your posts are completely bias and partisan.
Yes Abramoff was involved with both, that was my point Fred. You are trying to play guilty by association with your assumptions as if they are facts and posting this ridiculous accusation as if only Democrats do this and all Republicans are perfect and you must vote Republican because all Democrats are crooked, yes that is what you are trying to imply and you know it and it is simply an ignorant notion.
You really should also stop assuming, you know what they say about assuming. LOL
gqrich…If you don’t want to beleive in guilt by association you certainly have the right to close your eyes to decades of coruption. A little research and connecting the dots yields substantial proof of the Punk’s involvement in dirty campaign money. In addition, Abramoff has made contributions to and been involved with Democrats as well as Republicans. Once again, please educate yourself on the issue before getting partisan.
Fred I don’t believe in guilt by association.
You are entitled to your opionions but please don’t state them as fact because you can’t proof TM had any knowledge of this and you don’t have a crystal ball, saying this is what he will do to. That is your opionion but not fact, that’s what FOX News does very well, state opionions as facts.
You want to do that then let’s talk about Jack Abramoff and the Republican Party.
OK gqrich, it’s a fact that Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton took ILLEGAL Campaign contributions and covered it up. Guilt by Association includes Terry McAuliffe, because he was at the right hand of the Clintons and to a lesser extent Al Gore. Mc Auuliffe, the punk, had knowledge of these campaign contributions…to your point, The Punk was in on the scam then, and there is no reaseon, given his history, that HE wouldn’t take money from ANYBODY now! when it comes to the Clintons and the Punk, guilt by association is the norm, not the exception. Educate yourself on the facts, see my previous post, then you will have a better understanding of what’s going on.
Again Fred I deal in facts. You are playing guilt by association.
You are only speculating that this is what McAuliffe will do.
And I mean really, you think no Republican has ever danced around campaign finance rules, I mean really? You would have to be seriously naive.
gqrich…Now you are catching on, and you are right it is illegal to take contributions form foreigners, but that won’t stop the punk, or who ever becomes the nominee. Now THE FACTS…educate yourself on Charlie Tree, Norman Hsu, Mochtar Riady and Ted Sioeng, all have been involved in illegally funneling foriegn money to the Clintons and/ or Al Gore.
Fred I deal in facts not speculations. The facts are Bob McDonnell has more money than the 3 democrats put together now. He also has more money from out of state than the democrats do now. And if I am not mistaken you can not take foreign money for U.S. political campaigns, I believe the Clinton money you are speaking of has come to his Library after he left office.
gqrich…I know it’s been a long time since Bill Clinton was president, but YOU really need to do some research on Clinton era fundraising. If The Punk wins the primary, your going to see money comming into his campaign from fom all over the world let alone the 50 states. Remember gqrich, this is only primary money for the Democrats, McDonnell is banking money for the November election. When a one of these three wins then we will see the money pour in from legitimate and illegitamte sources worldwide!
Good job 12step!
Apparently Fred doesn’t comprehend English very well and has a little trouble with math.
McAuliffe isn’t leading in funding or out of state money in the race for governor, your man McDonnell is leading big time in both.
All of you who are up in arms about McAuliffe’s out of state funding should be REALLY upset about Bob McDonnell, then.
I only counted the first two pages of donations (of 13), but the out of state contributions totalled ~2.1 million, nearly half of his total contributions.
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