| Ed. note: In other 3rd quarter news -- for those who missed Matt's story earlier -- Rep. Mike McCaul (TX-10) is in debt. Read more by clicking here. -- Phillip
From the El Paso Times (thanks to Off the Kuff): Noriega raised about $508,000 from individuals, not including refunded contributions, for next year's elections. Watts pulled in about $443,000, Federal Election Commission reports showed.
Both hope to challenge Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who will seek a second six-year term. He collected $1.3 million from individual contributors.
"It definitely creates the question whether his first report was kind of a gimmick and really whether he was going to be a self-funded campaign," James Aldrete, Noriega's campaign manager, said of Watts' fundraising.
Watts reported raising $1.1 million in June, when he launched his campaign. In September, he loaned $3.7 million to his primary campaign and vowed to dedicate future contributions to challenging Cornyn.
Kim Devlin, a spokeswoman for Watts, said there was no gimmick. She said about two-thirds of Watts' donors contributed $100 or less each, showing he has true support from everyday voters.
"Mikal's support from a broad spectrum of Texans means we will be able to run an aggressive campaign that hits on all cylinders all over the state." Here's what we know from the 3rd quarter numbers:
1) Cornyn has lots and lots of money (duh).
2) Watts loans lots and lots of money to himself (duh).
3) Noriega raised more in individual donations than Watts (wow).
I say "wow" because Noriega is working from a much smaller base of supporters (presumably) than Watts, as Watts has hosted and attended prominent fundraisers across the state. I'm certain that Noriega's contributions from the netroots are what pushed him over the edge (and what accounts for his higher percentage of out-of-state contributions).
In any case -- raising over $500k is a great deal from either candidate. Not including Watts' personal checkbook, well over $1 million has been raised to beat Senator Cornyn over a year away from the election. This statewide challenge is already more serious statewide efforts from Democrats in the past.
**Update**Hadn't read the papers before I wrote this, but it looks like R.G. Ratcliffe of the Houston Chronicle agrees that Noriega is doing well. From his column, which is titled, "Wealth may not be enough for Watts in Senate race": Finance reports filed Monday show San Antonio lawyer Mikal Watts is the wealthiest candidate in the race for the U.S. Senate, but in a heavily Hispanic Democratic primary that money may not give him a huge advantage over state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston.
The Hispanic voter turnout in Texas still is not heavy enough to have a major impact on a general election, but in the Democratic primary, Latinos make up as much as 35 percent of the vote. And their vote in the past has favored candidates of the same ethnicity.
During the 2002 Democratic U.S. Senate runoff, Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk spent $2 million and had the support of the Democratic Party establishment. Kirk won, but one-time Senate nominee Victor Morales captured 40 percent of the vote while spending just $8,763. I wrote once that money wasn't as important for Watts as issues were, and that he needed to do better to develop his issues and persona. Fair enough? |
