Congressional fundraising: Clark crushes the 8th and Bachmann's big return

Tarryl Clark

WASHINGTON — First quarter fundraising numbers for congressional candidates are in, so let’s take our traditional look at how each incumbent and candidate fared.

A couple of takeaways from the first three months of 2012:

• The 8^th District race is, by all accounts, expected to be the most competitive of the cycle in Minnesota, and the fundraising totals indicate just that. Rep. Chip Cravaack has raised nearly $1 million this cycle, but he’s twice had weaker fundraising quarters than one of his would-be DFL competitors, former state Sen. Tarryl Clark. She raised $320,000, about $65,000 more than Cravaack and almost three times as much as her two DFL primary opponents combined.

• Michele Bachmann’s failed presidential bid has not driven away donors. She raised $570,000 in two months, more than any other U.S. House incumbent in the state during the entire quarter.

• Republican U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hegseth entered the race on March 1 and raised $160,000 that month alone. That’s more money than former state Rep. Dan Severson raised all last year (though he put together his best quarter of the cycle, as well). It’s still chump change compared to incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s haul — she raised nearly $1 million and has $5.2 million in the bank. 

Here’s a district-by-district breakdown:

U.S. Senate

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat: Raised: $983,000. On Hand: $5.2 million.

Pete Hegseth, Republican: Raised: $160,000 (since March 1). On Hand: $130,000.

Dan Severson, Republican: Raised: $54,000. On Hand: $40,300.

Kurt Bills, Republican: Raised: $45,500 (since mid-March). On Hand: $34,000.

Klobuchar has raised in the neighborhood of $1 million each quarter since the beginning of last year and has assembled a war chest that dwarfs her opponents. By most counts, Klobuchar is popular among voters and seen as a safe incumbent come November, and the fundraising advantage she has over her would-be challengers is going to be a tough for the eventual Republican candidate to overcome.

On the Republican side, both Hegseth and Bills entered the race in March and got underway fundraising immediately. Hegseth’s $160,000 figure is more than all Republicans in the race had previously raised, combined. Bills received an endorsement from presidential candidate Ron Paul, who emailed his donor list on March 30 soliciting donations for Bills, two days before the end of the fundraising quarter. Paul supporters are notoriously small-dollar donors who contribute online, so it’s likely they helped (and will continue to help) boast Bills’s numbers.

1^st District

Rep. Tim Walz, Democrat: Raised: $217,000. On Hand: $708,000.

Al Quist, Republican: Raised: $38,000. On Hand: $59,000.

Mike Parry, Republican: Raised: $17,000. On Hand: $36,000.

Nationally, Republicans had hoped to make the 1^st District race competitive, and Parry, a state senator, was seen as a candidate who could pose a significant challenge to Walz. But Parry’s fundraising ability has disappointed — he raised half has much over the last three months as he did in the first two months of his campaign — while Walz has quietly built up a sizable cash advantage over his two Republican opponents. He has raised more than $1.2 million this cycle and has $708,000 on hand.

Quist, meanwhile, doubled up Parry this quarter. His campaign is still $25,000 in debt.

The 1^st District Republican endorsing convention is this weekend.

2^nd District

Rep. John Kline, Republican: Raised: $255,000. On Hand: $1 million.

Kline is the second House incumbent to report a cash-on-hand total topping $1 million, joining Republican Erik Paulsen.

Three Democrats have announced campaigns to run against Kline: former Minnesota Rep. Mike Obermueller, Dakota County Commissioner Kathleen Gaylord and Northfield City Councilman Patrick Ganey. Whichever is endorsed to challenge Kline will start off significantly in-the-hole financially.

3^rd District

Rep. Erik Paulsen, Republican: Raised: $322,000. On Hand: $1.3 million.

Brian Barnes, Democrat: Raised: $30,000. On Hand: $30,800.

Paulsen has the fattest pockets of any House incumbent from Minnesota, and he’s raised more than $300,000 for the fifth straight quarter. He has a nearly 42-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage over newly endorsed challenger Brian Barnes.

4^th District

Rep. Betty McCollum, Democrat: Raised: $123,000. On Hand: $222,000.

Daniel Flood, Republican: Raised: $595. On Hand: -$1,275.

Anthony Hernandez, Republican: No FEC filing.

Betty McCollum has raised less money than any Minnesota House incumbent this cycle and has the second-lowest cash-on-hand total, but she’s in a safe Democratic district and won’t need to worry about significant Republican opposition.

5^th District

Rep. Keith Ellison, Democrat: Raised: $232,500. On Hand: $133,000.

Chris Fields, Republican: Raised: $10,400. On Hand: $5,000.

Like McCollum, Ellison’s district is strongly Democratic and he isn’t too concerned with turning in gaudy fundraising figures.

6^th District

Rep. Michele Bachmann, Republican: Raised: $570,000. On Hand: $642,000.

Jim Graves, Democrat: On Hand: $85,000.

Bachmann formally launched her congressional re-election campaign in February and returned to her place as the undisputed top fundraiser among the House delegation. Bachmann’s $570,000 came in only two months, and it’s still the most raised among her colleagues last quarter.

Bachmann, of course, is a historically strong fundraiser, raising a record $12.3 million in her re-election bid two years ago.

Graves, Bachmann’s DFL challenger, loaned his campaign $100,000 to get off the ground.

(Bachmann's presidential campaign, meanwhile, raised $25,500 between the end of January and March. She has $250,000 on hand and remains more than $1 million in debt.)

7^th District

Rep. Collin Peterson, Democrat: Raised: $116,000. On Hand: $752,000.

Lee Byberg, Republican: Raised: $53,500. On Hand: $91,000.

Byberg is taking his second shot at Peterson, who opens up the general election campaign with an 8-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage.

Peterson beat Byberg by 18 points in 2010, and Byberg still has $78,000 in debt left over from that campaign.

8^th District

Rep. Chip Cravaack, Republican: Raised: $246,000. On Hand: $629,000.

Tarryl Clark, Democrat: Raised: $321,000. On Hand: $418,000.

Rick Nolan, Democrat: Raised: $77,000. On Hand: $40,500.

Jeff Anderson, Democrat: Raised: $38,000. On Hand: $20,000.

For context’s sake, Tarryl Clark’s $321,000 effort last quarter was:

• Her best fundraising quarter of the campaign;

• More than the other two DFL candidates in this race have raised all cycle;

• More than every other Minnesota U.S. House challenger this quarter combined, and;

• The second time she’s outraised Cravaack this cycle.

Both Anderson and Nolan turned in their best fundraising performances of the cycle, but they are sitting in Clark’s shadow right now. The three candidates will face off in an August primary.

The Clark campaign says it received 5,000 donations last quarter, including those from 3,100 new donors. Two national Democratic groups helped her on her way: EMILY’s List bundled $82,000 in contributions for Clark, and the ActBlue PAC brought in another $91,000. Clark is never going to raise as much money this cycle as she did in 2010 running against Bachmann, but if this quarter is any indication, she can still count on national dollars if she wins the DFL primary.

For Cravaack’s part, he’s raised nearly $1 million and has a $200,000 cash-on-hand advantage over Clark. The 1^st quarter was the best of his campaign.

Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry