WASHINGTON — Welcome to the first congressional fundraising round-up of the 2014 election cycle.
Sure, voters are 19 months away from casting ballots in that election, and the vast majority of them aren’t dwelling on the ins-and-outs of a political campaign this early. But campaigns’ donors are already cutting checks, in reasonably large sums in a few cases.
Here are the highlights from the first three months of 2013:
- It’s no surprise by now that Michele Bachmann would have the best fundraising quarter among Minnesota’s U.S. House delegation, and that was the case again between January and March, when she took in $678,665 (the next closest was Erik Paulsen, who took in nearly $360,000). But this was Bachmann’s second-weakest fundraising quarter in the last three years (she took in $570,000 during the first three months of 2012, before announcing her run for re-election), and she spent more than she brought in ($890,000).
- Sen. Al Franken raised nearly $2 million and has about that same figure on hand going into his first re-election campaign. He has no Republican opponent and has more than twice as much on hand as either Paulsen or John Kline, two House Republicans who have left the door open to a run against him.
- Contributions from Political Action Committees made up more than half the total figure brought in by four Minnesotans: Kline (51 percent), Betty McCollum (62 percent), Collin Peterson (82 percent) and Rick Nolan (83 percent). With the exception of Peterson, those proportions are much higher than the candidates’ total PAC shares from the 2012 cycle, so those numbers will go down as we get closer to November 2014 (PAC contributions made up 79 percent of Peterson’s total fundraising last cycle).
- Minnesotans raised about $3.95 million in the first quarter, off from $4.02 million during the same quarter in 2011.
Here’s a quick district-by-district breakdown for the first quarter:
Senate
Franken had the best fundraising quarter of any Minnesota U.S. Senate candidate over the last three years — Amy Klobuchar coasted to re-election last cycle and her fundraising eventually lagged accordingly. I wrote a bit more on Franken’s numbers (and his campaign’s video press release) here.
1st District
Tim Walz raisedjust more than $100,300 and has $86,000 on hand. His haul was a bit off his pace from last cycle, but he doesn’t have any debt to deal with this time around.
Walz is the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Frontline Program, making him the group’s point person for helping Democratic members running for re-election in competitive districts around the country.
2nd District
John Kline took in nearly $258,000 and has more than $750,000 on hand for either a U.S. Senate run (which he has not closed the door to) or a re-election campaign for his House seat. Two Democrats have announced runs against Kline, including his 2012 opponent, Mike Obermueller, who has just $5,500 in the bank. National Democrats want to make the 2nd District competitive in 2014, but Kline will start out with a significant fundraising advantage no matter their candidate.
3rd District
Erik Paulsen brought in nearly $360,000 and has $940,000 on hand. Paulsen also hasn’t ruled out challenging Franken, but if he sticks with his House seat he will have a customarily large fundraising advantage over whatever Democrat challenges him (he raised $3.1 million to his opponent’s $440,000 last cycle).
4th District
Betty McCollum raised $101,000 between January and March and has $63,000 in the bank. What’s more interesting, perhaps, is that she brought in just $75.85 during the last five weeks of 2012. McCollum is a safe bet for re-election.
5th District
Keith Ellison raised $185,000 and spent $140,000, with about $86,600 on hand. Ellison is safe in 2014.
6th District
Bachmann’s $678,000 haul is well off the pace she set between January and March 2011, when she brought in $1.7 million. But $678,000 is still easily the biggest haul among Minnesota U.S. House members, and is probably one of the biggest first quarter figures in the country.
Bachmann is also a prolific big-spender, and the $890,000 her campaign spent last quarter is about $385,000 more than her seven fellow House incumbents combined. And she still has $1.8 million in the bank!
Last week, DFLer Jim Graves announced that he’ll challenge Bachmann again in 2014, and he’ll start with just $26,000 on hand. But Graves is personally wealthy and can give to his campaign, as he did last cycle to the tune of $250,000. His close loss in 2012 (by just 4,300 votes) should be a boon for his campaign coffers this time around if Democrats view him as a candidate able to knock off Bachmann. (She should benefit from it as well — last week, her campaign was fundraising off of Graves’s candidacy just minutes after he announced). It’s not too soon to predict the 6th District race will be the most expensive House contest in Minnesota in 2014.
Meanwhile, Bachmann’s presidential campaign is still $128,000 in debt, though she’s made six-digit transfers from her House account in the past and could pay that debt off whenever she wants.
7th District
Collin Peterson raised $164,000 and has $160,000 on hand going into 2014. Peterson has never been an extraordinary fundraiser, but manages to turn his position as the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee into campaign cash.
The National Republican Congressional Committee put Peterson on their short-list of potential pick-ups in 2014, though he tends to perform very well in what is otherwise a Republican-leaning district.
8th District
Rick Nolan brought in $120,600 and has $119,000 in the bank for a potential re-election run. Nolan’s campaign has paid down $15,000 worth of debt since the election, but he still owes about $38,000. Nolan raised almost exactly has much as Rep. Chip Cravaack raised during the first quarter of 2011, though the 8th District is not expected to be as competitive in 2014 as it was last year.
Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry