Catching up on news from last week, the third-quarter campaign finance reports for Iowa’s four Congressional districts are all online at the Federal Election Commission’s website. My big takeaways:
In the open seat race in IA-01, Democrat Pat Murphy has out-rased Republican Rod Blum, both during the third quarter and in the election cycle to date. But Blum went into the home stretch with a cash advantage, for two reasons: 1) he has put more than $200,000 of his own money into the campaign, and 2) he didn’t have to spend heavily before the June primary–unlike Murphy, who had to spend most of the early money he raised to get past four Democratic rivals.
In IA-02, Democratic incumbent Dave Loebsack ended the quarter with far more money to spend than his GOP challenger Mariannette Miller-Meeks. One reason is that as of September 30, Miller-Meeks had not put much of her own money behind her third Congressional bid. In contrast, she put more than $500,000 into her 2010 Congressional campaign.
In IA-03, David Young would be dead in the water without his personal loans to the campaign and the immense support he is getting from corporate and conservative political action committees. He entered the last five weeks of the campaign with more debts than cash on hand.
In IA-04, Democratic challenger Jim Mowrer out-raised six-term Representative Steve King yet again. Even more impressive, Mowrer raised more from individuals this quarter than any other Iowa candidate for the U.S. House. But King went into the home stretch with more cash on hand, after waiting much longer than Mowrer to start running television commercials.
Follow me after the jump for many more details from all eight major-party candidates’ filings. Bleeding Heartland will cover the independent expenditures in to four U.S. House races in a future post. IA-03 continues to be the main focus for outside groups, but more money is coming into IA-01 as well. The bad news for Miller-Meeks is that IA-02 isn’t drawing a lot of interest this year, in contrast to 2010.
IA-01
State Representative Pat Murphy raised $357,746.95 between July 1 and September 30, including $211,403.05 from individuals, $2000.00 from county Democratic Party committees, and $144,190.00 from a range of labor and progressive political action committees, as well as committees run by various U.S. House Democrats. The final $153.90 came from the candidate.
Murphy’s campaign reported spending $309,826.24 during the third quarter. Nothing jumped out at me as unusual on the itemized expenditure list. As of September 30, Murphy had $179,414.06 on hand with no debts.
Rod Blum has raised less during the election cycle as a whole–$777,222.39 to $1,090,973.45 for Murphy. Blum’s latest FEC filing showed $297,979.71 in campaign contributions during the third quarter, including $183,416.54 from individuals, $104,679.90 from PACs, and $9,883.27 from the candidate himself. That brings Blum’s total contributions to his latest Congressional campaign to $102,365.93.
In addition, Blum loaned his campaign $100,000 during the third quarter and brought in $4,482.37 from a Washington, DC joint fundraiser with the National Republican Congressional Committee. As a result, his total receipts during the third quarter were $402,462.08.
Blum’s campaign reported spending $244,345.55 on a typical mix of expenses. As of September 30, he had $226,842.20 cash on hand, with $17,500 owed to a polling firm on top of the $100,000 Blum for Congress owed to the candidate.
IA-02
Four-term incumbent Dave Loebsack had a typical fundraising quarter, reporting $373,433.03 in contributions. Of that amount, $193,611.16 came from individuals, $5,000.00 from county Democratic Party committees, and $174,821.87 from a mix of Democratic, labor, and corporate PACs.
Loebsack’s campaign spent $478,426.98 during the third quarter. The biggest expenses included salaries, consulting, media production, and transfers to the Iowa Democratic Party. As of September 30, his campaign had $604,427.80 cash on hand with no debts.
Challenger Mariannette Miller-Meeks reported raising $361,528.45 during the third quarter, including $250,084.95 from individuals, $111,443.50 from various PACs that tend to support Republicans, and $5,000 from a fundraiser with the NRCC in Washington.
While Miller-Meeks has made a lot of in-kind campaign contributions to her third Congressional bid, totaling $9,453.92 as of September 30, she has not yet loaned her campaign a large chunk of money. Toward the end of her 2010 bid to unseat Loebsack, Miller-Meeks went all-in with more than $500,000 of her own money.
During the third quarter, Miller-Meeks’ campaign reported spending $498,917.66, with salaries, direct mail, and media among the largest itemized expenses.
Miller-Meeks’ big problem is that her campaign had only $142,088.80 cash on hand as of September 30, with $1,605.55 in debts and obligations. That won’t be enough for district-wide paid advertising in the closing weeks, and at this writing, outside conservative groups do not seem inclined to spend a lot of money in IA-02. Instead, more help is flowing to Blum in IA-01.
IA-03
In this open-seat race, Democrat Staci Appel has raised $1,765,642.25 for the election cycle as a whole, significantly more than Republican David Young’s take of $1,375,963.63 for the cycle.
Looking solely at the third quarter, Young raised more than Appel, but only because of an enormous haul from PACs.
Appel’s latest FEC filing shows $592,685.02 in total contributions between July 1 and September 30, including $457,669.87 from individuals and $135,015.15 from a range of PACs (click here for the itemized receipts).
Lacking any competition in the Democratic primary, Appel was able to save most of what she raised early in the campaign. She went into the third quarter with a comfortable lead in cash on hand and was therefore able to spend $951,048.54 during the third quarter. Expenses related to television advertising were by far the biggest expenditures. Even so, Appel’s campaign had $369,055.22 cash on hand remaining as of September 30, with no debts.
Young for Iowa raised $794,838.55 during the third quarter, a large amount for a non-incumbent. Of that total, $422,040.13 came from individuals, $222.00 from county GOP committees, $7,504.82 from the candidate himself, and a staggering $365,071.60 came from PACs. (Click here for itemized receipts.) That’s the benefit of having a career as a Congressional staffer, the last seven years working for Senator Chuck Grassley.
Young had already loaned his own campaign $250,000 by the end of the second quarter. That, plus his strong 3Q fundraising, allowed his campaign to spend $591,410.54 between July 1 and September 30. The biggest expenses included media advertising, consulting, and staff salaries.
Unfortunately for Young, he ended the third quarter with just $295,193.91 cash on hand and $336,301.55 in debts. In addition to the $250,000 in loans from the candidate, Young for Iowa is also carrying $86,301.55 in unpaid bills to various vendors.
IA-04
Six-term Republican incumbent Steve King has never appeared to take this year’s campaign as seriously as he took his 2012 re-election bid against Chistie Vilsack. He finally picked up his fundraising during the second quarter of this year, and his campaign continued to bring in money at a good clip in the summer and early fall. King’s latest FEC filing shows $601,478.90 in total contributions between July 1 and September 30. Of that amount, $470,604.90 came from individuals, $7,400.00 came from county GOP committees, and $123,474.00 came from a range of conservative and corporate PACs.
King’s campaign spent $302,770.63 during the third quarter on a typical mix of expenses including salaries, direct mail, fundraising, and polling. As of September 30, King had $736,871.19 cash on hand with no debts. The incumbent’s first television commercials went up in early October.
Jim Mowrer has raised an impressive amount of money for a first-time candidate, especially one running against an entrenched incumbent in a difficult district for a Democrat. No doubt it helps that King is one of the members of Congress most hated by liberals across the country. During the third quarter, Mowrer raised a staggering $703,919.73, of which $675,154.32 came from individuals and just $29,185.41 from PACs (the last $330.00 came from county Democratic Party committees). That’s the fourth quarter Mowrer has out-raised King.
In early August, Mowrer started running television commercials to reach most of the 39 counties in IA-04. Advertising expenses accounted for the bulk of the $1,070,942.16 his campaign spent during the third quarter. Other significant expenses included fees for consulting and polling, and transfers to the Iowa Democratic Party (for use of the voter file and to help fund the coordinated GOTV campaign). As of September 30, Mowrer had $242,752.09 cash on hand with no debts.