Can someone please explain Mark Lofgren to me? If you’re going to the trouble of getting in a Congressional race early and lining up a bunch of endorsements (presumably to deter would-be rivals in your own party), why wouldn’t you work hard on fundraising? Lofgren’s year-end financial report was even weaker than his third-quarter Federal Election Commission filing, which is saying something.

Lofgren isn’t giving four-term Democratic incumbent Dave Loebsack a thing to worry about, and he’s leaving the door wide open for Mariannette Miller-Meeks to come in and take the Republican primary to represent IA-02. Follow me after the jump for details from the FEC reports.  

Loebsack’s fundraising looked much like last quarter’s FEC filing. His campaign reported raising $144,582.75 during the last three months of the year. Of that amount, $71,582.75 came from individuals and $73,000 from a range of labor, corporate, and progressive political action committees. Loebsack reported spending $51,226.90 and finished the year with $425,115.89 cash on hand. That’s not an intimidating war chest compared to some incumbents’ bank accounts, but it’s a good start on what Loebsack will need to run an adequate district-wide campaign in IA-02.

The big story was Lofgren for Congress raising only $34,003.28 during the last three months of 2013. More than $4,600 of that total came from the candidate himself. I didn’t expect big numbers from Lofgren, but I also didn’t expect to see him raise less money than his early underwhelming effort. His campaign reported spending $26,546.80 during the fourth quarter, leaving only $32,368.67 cash on hand going into the election year. It’s not enough to campaign effectively district-wide before the primary.

Loebsack’s two declared GOP opponents during the last election cycle weren’t the world’s greatest fundraisers, but both of them had far more cash on hand than Lofgren at this stage of the game.

Lofgren had better hope that the Republican base in southeast Iowa doesn’t want to give Miller-Meeks a third shot at beating Loebsack, because she wants to win a seat in Congress and appears ready to run again. Based on how she smoked three GOP competitors in the 2010 primary, I expect her to dispatch Lofgren with little trouble.

Any comments about the IA-02 race are welcome in this thread.