Winston-Salem Journal: Hagan is closing the gap in fundraising with Dole; Both raised a lot in latest period, but Dole outspent Hagan
Winston-Salem Journal
By James Romoser
July 12, 2008
RALEIGH – Sen. Elizabeth Dole and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue have out-raised and outspent their opponents so far in the top two races for statewide office.
But in the race for U.S. Senate, Dole’s Democratic challenger, Kay Hagan, is closing a fundraising gap that had once appeared insurmountable.
“We have known from the beginning that this is going to be a competitive race,” said Colleen Flanagan, a spokeswoman for the Hagan campaign.
Last year, Hagan entered the race against Dole as an underdog. She is a state senator with low name recognition beyond her home district in Guilford County, and she had never run for statewide office.
Perhaps her biggest obstacle was — and still is — building a war chest big enough to compete with the Dole campaign’s strong fundraising machine.
New fundraising numbers out this week show that Hagan is doing better than some had expected.
In mid-April, Hagan had just $320,000 available to spend — about a tenth of the $3.17 million in cash on hand that Dole had at that point.
But as of the end of June, Hagan’s cash on hand had grown to $1.2 million, while Dole’s had shrunk to $2.7 million.
Two things helped narrow the gap.
During the most recent campaign-finance reporting period, Dole and Hagan each raised about the same amount of money, slightly over $1.5 million each.
Meanwhile, during that same period, Dole burned through much of her money, spending more than $2 million, while Hagan spent just $660,000.
A large portion of Dole’s spending went toward two television ads she ran touting her record in the Senate. Hagan ran some television ads before the May 6 primary but has not run any since then.
Hogan Gidley, a spokesman for Dole, noted that Dole maintains a lead over Hagan in most polls. A poll released on July 1 by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showed Dole leading Hagan, 51 percent to 37 percent.
“We wouldn’t trade places with Kay Hagan for all the gold at Fort Knox,” Gidley said.
In the race for governor, Perdue, a Democrat, raised nearly $2.5 million between mid-April and the end of June, and ended that period with $1.42 million cash on hand.
Her Republican opponent, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, raised a little more than $1 million during the same period and ended with about $700,000 in cash on hand.
Perdue, who is ending her second term as lieutenant governor, began the race with a large fundraising network. McCrory has not run for statewide office before, and he got into the governor’s race relatively late.
“Raising a million dollars is a very significant thing, considering that Pat has been in this race for less than six months. His opponent has been running for basically eight years,” said Amy Auth, a spokeswoman for the McCrory campaign.
A large portion of the money McCrory raised came from a single fundraiser in Raleigh attended by President Bush.
A spokesman for Perdue said that Perdue has received campaign contributions from more than 10,000 individual donors overall, and has received donations from residents of all 100 North Carolina counties.
Fundraising totals were announced by the campaigns.
The campaign-finance disclosure reports that candidates are required to file are not yet available, so details about their most recent donors and spending remain unclear.
For instance, it’s not clear how much money Hagan received from the Democratic National Committee or from national Democrats, some of whom see Dole’s seat as one that the Democrats can pick up in November.
