Nunnelee and Childers Battle Over Fundraising Numbers
We have talked a good bit about fundraising recently as fourth quarter figures were do at the end of January. Fundraising usually makes for a good chance to spin your numbers- or your opponents- to your advantage.
Alan Nunnelee can brag about raising more than $200,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to just $109,000 for Travis Childers during the same period. Childers, on the other hand, can point to total cash on hand. Right now, he has $550,000 versus $292,000 for Nunnelee. So it can cut both ways.
This is how Brad Morris, chief of staff to Childers, saw it: “The fact is Congressman Childers had a phenomenal year in fundraising. He’s raised about $850,000 this cycle, roughly twice as much as his nearest competitor. He ended the year with $550,000 cash on hand, which is nearly double the cash in hand for his competitor.”
One area where I think Nunnelee can make a valid winning argument is where that money a candidate raises came from. On Friday, Nunnelee said, “The thing that I was excited about in our fundraising was we showed strong support throughout North Mississippi. We got money from a lot of individuals where the other side is getting almost all their money out of Washington.”
The Commercial Appeal looked at the numbers and here is what the found: Of the $822,780 Childers has raised so far, $491,085 has come from political action committees and $330,448 has been contributed by individuals.
Of Nunnelee’s $421,937, only $37,500 was contributed by PACs, and $384,437 came from individuals.
Let’s be honest, nobody runs as the DC candidate. In the general election, this could be a winning issue for Nunnelee if he could convince voters that Childers is now a “Washington, D.C. politician.” However, if Nunnelee were to get that far I am sure he would begin to see a pickup in donations from PACs and out-of-state.
It looks like these two will have a “Clash of the Titans” if you will. I am looking forward to watching the race between these two. That is as long as McGlowan does not come in and play the spoiler. I will bet that she can come up with a lot of money fast. Although McGlowan/Childers would be an interesting race. I think it would guarantee Childers the seat back . Challenge is good in the primaries that is what a free election is all about. I would just warn McGlowan and Nunnelee against destroying each other to the point that neither can beat Childers. He is an imbarassment to all of us in the State along with a couple of other Knuckleheads from Mississippi.