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Last night the third quarter reports went up for all federal candidates. As always, the numbers tell some bold, unexpected stories.
First, the congressional race du jour, the Texas 10th. Yesterday we wrote that Congressman Clear Channel is in the red, the good news is both Democratic candidates are well positioned.
Larry Joe Doherty is reporting $53,765.00 raised this quarter bringing his total up to $128,875.00 with cash on hand being $171,236.60 but total debt $100,000. If Doherty pays himself back that gives him $71,236.60 on hand.
Dan Grant raised $45,247.00 this quarter bringing his total up to $118,112.08 with cash on hand being $72,247.01 and no debt.
Grant is already running a full race and Doherty appears to be holding the money until 2008.
Excluding the debt for all three candidates in CD-10, both Grant and Doherty have more money than McCaul. However, both Doherty and McCaul have the ability to self finance this race and could throw money at their problems if they need to. Although looking at the broader numbers, Democrats look good. If you combine the Democratic challengers, the Democrats raised almost 25% more than McCaul did in the third quarter alone. This solidified CD-10 as one of the most likely pick-ups in Texas.
Going from Democratic pick up to Democratic hold, Nick Lampson in CD-22 has some numbers to coo about. Lampson reported $324,918.74 raised this quarter bringing his total up to $871,314.89 with cash on hand being $679,418.12 and no debt to report. Only Chet Edwards in CD-17 (COH $921,223.46) and Lloyd Doggett in CD-25 (COH $2,198,024.05) have better numbers.
The horde of challengers in CD-22 have raised $499,473.07 this quarter bringing the Republican total up to $574,185.38 with cash on hand being $807,836.93 and a total debt of $519,278.49.
The Republican side is a 6 way race and Rep. Lampson is competing closely with the field and is beating the leading challenger, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs almost 2:1 in fundraising.
The fact that it takes 6 Republicans to raise as much as Democrats seems like an anomaly on face, but this trend seems to play out state wide. 16 Democrats have filed Q3 reports but 30 Republicans have filed. Looking at the average money raised and on hand, Democrats are winning in every category.
Democrats raised an average of $124,525.92 this quarter bringing the average cash on hand up to $415,759.49. Republicans on the other hand raised an average of $80,713.39 this quarter bringing the average cash on hand up to $321,111.66.
In a world were money makes you credible, Democrats in Texas look very credible for the '08 cycle.
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