Campaign finance reports confirm what folks have been sensing around Aberdeen about the District 3 Senate race: the Democrat is the campaign turtle, slow and steady, while the Republican is the rabbit, napping most of the year and hoping to make up for lost time with a sudden burst at the end.
For evidence, compare my campaign finance summary with Rep. Al Novstrup’s:
Including in-kind contributions, the seven-term Republican incumbent has raised 35% more resources than the first-time Democratic Legislative candidate challenging him. Over all but the last fifteen days of he campaign, I have spent 2.54 times as much on reaching the voters. As of our reporting dates (Al Thursday, me Friday), Al had 5.28 times as much money to pour into those final radio, newspaper, Web, and mail ads.
(Cory, the SDSU Jackrabbit, the guy who restrains himself to 180 spoken words per minute on a calm day, as the turtle—revel in that irony!)
Looking at sources of money, Al raised $4,539.38, 20% of his total dollar fundraising, from individual donors. My individual contributions total $7,685.01, 42% of my campaign cash. Al got 69% of his money, $15,550, from PACs. I got 51% of my money, $9,387.59, from PACs, although almost half of that money, $4,647.59, comes from individual donors who contributed through ActBlue, a PayPal for Democrats. ActBlue provides the mechanism for candidates to create an easy online contribution tool (click here and you can see how easy it is!) and disburses the contributions via check every few days. The Secretary of State’s office tells us to report ActBlue checks as PAC dollars, but ActBlue money isn’t really a PAC deciding to give money to a candidate; it’s just a service provider helping individuals contribute to Democrats. By that reasoning, I can argue that I’ve raised 67% of my money from individual donors, while Al is relying 69% on PACs.
Obviously, the Republican and Democratic candidates for District 3 Senate have taken very different approaches to raising money and campaigning in District 3. I invite commentary on the effectiveness of our fundraising and spending.
To the voters of District 3. Who to you believe Mr. Novstrup is beholden to?
On beholdenness: all politicians have donors. Donors should understand that campaign contributions don’t buy votes; campaign contributions show you support the ideas and skills the candidate brings to the table. At least that’s how it works in my campaign.
Why, since Mr. Novstrup is elected by the voters of District 3, the group he has long and faithfully served, I expect he is beholden to the Aberdeen shakers and movers and common people of the town.
speaking of Aberdeen, featured in an anti-somali immigrant article on NPR today, Novstrup was interviewed and was stunned the journalist didn’t “understand” his hyped version of their impending terror.
I heard Novstrup interviewed on NPR today in the aftermath of the Ron Branstner hate group meeting as well and he was dumbfounded that the reporter didn’t know that Dearborn, Michigan, was operating under Sharia law. A city council person in Dearborn, Michigan, was contacted by the reporter just to confirm that they were not operating under Sharia law. A sitting SD legislator thinks that Sharia law has been implemented in Dearborn, Michigan. Unbelievable!
I heard that NPR story as well. It really made Novstrup sound like a fool. I wish the program would have dug a little deeper … they would have discovered Cory on the side of our American ideals.
(I wish to heck they’d hurry up and transcribe that This American Life episode so I didn’t have to sit through the analog audio.)
(The TAL broadcast is here: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/600/will-i-know-anyone-at-this-party.)
(Al’s comments start at 47:50. Al tells a national reporter that she needs to read more because she doesn’t think there is Sharia Law anywhere in the United States.)