Burnt Orange Report

Money Raised in Legislative Races

By Andrew Dobbs

I've been meaning to do this for a few days now and before we get into the Convention-gasm that will follow for the next week I figured we'd better post these numbers. I picked 11 competitive or interesting races that we've been keeping up with around these parts to compare how the Democrats and Republicans are doing in their semiannual campaign finance reports. For a few there were no cash on hand numbers and Republican Ray Allen's COH number was in parantheses, the only one like that, and I don't know if that means he's that much in the hole or what. Reporting here in Texas can be a little lazy but here are the numbers thus far:

Jack Stick (R-Incumbent)
$121,449.84 Raised
$50,917.57 Spent
$101,689.49 Cash on Hand

vs.

Mark Strama (D-Challenger)
$225,826.49 Raised
$43,317.58 Spent
$188,499.34 Cash on Hand

Alan Askew (R-Challenger)
$15,455.61 Raised
($70,000 Loan)
$23,196.15 Spent
$26,842.36 Cash on Hand

vs.

Patrick Rose (D-Incumbent)
$343,695.31 Raised
$58,301.83 Spent
$504,768.37 Cash on Hand

Talmadge Heflin (R-Incumbent)
$40,950.00 Raised
$75,046.84 Spent
$106,034.00 Cash on Hand

vs.

Hubert Vo (D-Challenger)
$41,996.30 Raised
$60,141.64 Spent
$58,863.70 Cash on Hand

Todd Baxter (R-Incumbent)
$79,275.00 Raised
$10,252.52 Spent
$118,141.35 Cash on Hand

vs.

Kelly White (D-Challenger
$195,298.04 Raised
$60,655.02 Spent
Cash on Hand Not Available

Roy Blake, Jr. (R-Open Seat)
$27,290 Raised
$26,519.72 Spent
$13,679.49 Cash on Hand

vs.

Robin Moore (D-Open Seat)
$14,924.00 Raised
$8,781.62 Spent
$14,415.23 Cash on Hand

Ken Mercer (R-Incumben)
$91,793.89 Raised
$35,561.71 Spent
$71,059.61 Cash on Hand

vs.

David Leibowitz (D-Challenger)
$12,387.10 Raised
($71,347.15 Loan)
$84,653.37 Spent
"Zero" Cash on Hand Reported

Charles "Doc" Anderson (R-Challenger)
$43,250.69 Raised
$20,346.66 Spent
$20,957.94 Cash on Hand

vs.

John Mabry (D-Incumbent)
$79,772.31 Raised
$8,202.74 Spent
$87,171.77 Cash on Hand

Martha Wong (R-Incumbent)
$109,957.00 Raised
$11,838.62 Spent
$148,214 Cash on Hand

vs.

Jim Dougherty (D-Challenger)
$35,875.30 Raised
$19,336.05 Spent
$25,431.24 Cash on Hand

Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton (R-Incumbent)
$24,235.00 Raised
$15,803.84 Spent
Cash on Hand Not Available

vs.

Rex Peveto (D-Challenger)
$2,100 Raised
$2,522.13 Spent
$1,525.16 Cash on Hand

Ray Allen (R-Incumbent)
$80,595.63 Raised
($7,250 Loan)
$41,429.47 Spent
[$47,438.50] Cash on Hand (Don't know the significance of the brackets)

Jim Pitts (R-Incumbent)
$12,188.33 Raised
$24,740.20 Spent
$227,879.51 Cash on Hand

vs.

James "Jake" Gilbreath (D-Challenger)
$2,906.36 Raised
$2,686.53 Spent
Cash on Hand Not Available

The most shocking thing about these numbers is the fact that Democrats outraised $1,012,581.38 to the Republicans $646,440.99 in these 10 races- more than 1 and a half times more. Of course, if this is anything like 2002 the shady corporate cash will pour into the GOP races late in the cycle and off the books so don't get your hopes up.

The most promising signs are in Rose's race where he has a shocking $504,768.37 though his opponent is a multi-millionaire and is likely to start spending his cash soon. Strama's almost 2-1 advantage over Stick is exciting and White's greater than 2-1 advantage over Baxter suggests that Austin could be looking at an almost all Democratic (minus the unopposed Terry Keel) delegation. Mabry is looking good and so is Vo, though one would like to see a little more coin in both their pockets.

Disappointing signs are showing with Dougherty, Leibowitz, Peveto and Gilbreath. I never thought Gilbreath would win- I just hope he does better than expected. But raising only 3 grand in 6 months is pretty sad- especially when your opponent has almost a quarter of a million bucks in the bank. Leibowitz ought to have the easiest job of any Democrat- his opponent won in a fluke in 2002 and is one of the few Republicans in a solid Democratic distrct anywhere in the state. Still, he seems to be depending on loans (probably from himself) over fundraising and is burning it off fast. Dougherty's 6-1 disadvantage is sobering but one hopes he can start turning the corner on that one.

Over all things look very verygood. Let's keep it going and drop some coin in their buckets. Look to the left hand side of the page and you can find contribute links for most of our side.