The money chase

Posted at 1:44 PM on January 30, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Tuesday is the day for candidates to file their year-end campaign finance reports with the Federal Elections Commission. I'm updating the individual candidates pages in the Campaign 2006 section.

In the 1st District, Gil Gutknecht holds a substantial advantage over DFLer Tim Walz, $473,267 to $118, 136.

Second District Rep. John Kline is sitting on a pot of cash, having raised $659,693 to date. DFLer Coleen Rowley has not yet filed.

No wonder Rep. Jim Ramstad has no opposition in the 3rd District (OK, there are a lot of reasons, but this is one). He's sitting on $1.1 million.

In the 4th, Betty McCollum had a modest quarter of fundraising and has garnered about $188,000 to date. Her opponent, Republican Obi Sium, has not yet filed.

Martin Sabo, in the 5th District, is currently unopposed and has raised $249,510.50.

In the 6th District race, Phil Krinkie and Michele Bachmann are VERY close in fundraising. Jim Knoblach and Elwyn Tinklenberg and Jay Esmay have not yet filed.

In the 7th District, incumbent DFLer Colin Peterson has raised $318,958.35. Opponent Michael Barrett has yet to file his inaugural statement with the FEC.

And in the 8th District, incumbent Jim Oberstar reports $481,411.57 in total contributions at year's end. He is unopposed.

In the Senate race, none of the candidates has yet filed a report (or at least it's not available yet from the FEC), but Mark Kennedy has issued a release saying he has $2.65 million on hand and raised $1,529,461 in the last quarter, with a total of $3.65 million during the year.

Comments (2)

I would like to hear why the DFL cannot have a competent candidate running against Ramstad... seems to me if one were found, we may have a race.

Posted by gml4 | January 30, 2006 4:25 PM

Ramstad is considered a moderate, and an acceptable one in the 3rd District which has a distaste for the "righter" side of the Republican Party. That side, by the way, can't stand Ramstad. RedState.org, for example, refers to him as a bed-wetter.

So many Democrats may figure if RedState.org can't stand him, maybe he's not so bad. And, like I said, the guy's got some support from moderates, and $1+ million sitting around with nothing else to do.

The bigger question Polinaut has is why hasn't Ramstad made a pitch yet for a bigger office?

Posted by Bob Collins | January 30, 2006 4:34 PM

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