FEC Reports

U.S. Rep. John Shadegg: Campaign photoIn a statement, U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Phoenix) is touting his record-breaking second quarter fundraising total.

"In the most recent quarter, our campaign raised $564,205, which is well over twice as much as the $235,000 raised by my opponent," wrote Shadegg. "This figure is well above our prior record for any fundraising quarter.

"While total dollars raised is an important indication of support, even more important is the amount netted after deducting ongoing campaign expenditures. By this measure, we did even better. In the most recent quarter, after deducting ongoing expenses, our campaign netted $416,000 while my opponent's campaign only netted $74,000. This means our campaign netted almost six times as much as my opponent."

Earlier in the month I took a look ahead at the FEC numbers that were about to be posted. Well they are up now and we can see how everyone faired.

1st Congressional District

Ann Kirkpatrick, Jeffrey Brown, Howard Shanker and Mary Kim Titla are all competing for the Democratic nomination. Kirkpatrick has been added to the DCCC Red-to-Blue program and was expected to raise more than the other candidates, and boy did she. Kirkpatrick brought in almost $330K and finished with $669K cash-on-hand which is well more than her 3 opponents combined.

U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Tempe) raised $337,000 during the second quarter of the year, according to his campaign manager Seth Scott. Scott told PolitickerAZ.com that Mitchell has now raised $1.71 million for his re-election, and now has a cash on hand balance of $1.37 million.

The new totals indicate that Mitchell raised almost twice as much as the most prolific fundraiser in the Republican field, David Schweikert. Schweikert, who is running to win the 5th Congressional District Republican nomination to face Mitchell in November, has not released official numbers yet, but they will be in the $160,000 to $180,000 range for the quarter. Susan Bitter Smith is one of two candidates in the 5th district Republican race who has not yet released her fundraising totals, and may put up an impressive showing. However, it would be a major coup if she outdid Schweikert in the second quarter.

Jim Ogsbury raised $49,783 during the second quarter of the year, outpacing his previous quarterly fundraising effort by about $9,000, according to his campaign. He has raised close to $500,000 to date in his 5th Congressional District primary campaign for the Republican nomination.

However, Ogsbury's cash on hand total is below what he reported at the beginning of the second quarter. As of now, his campaign has $323,442 - $30,000 less than he had on April 1.

Despite trailing David Schweikert, who leads the six-person 5th District Republican pack by a large margin, the Ogsbury campaign is undeterred.

As the day goes on and the FEC posts the official Congressional numbers for the 2nd quarter I will be updating them here. Check back often for updates.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Tucson) raised $562,138 in the second quarter of the year, bringing her cash on hand total to almost $2.1 million, according to her campaign. Her opponent in the 8th Congressional District race, state Sen. Pres. Tim Bee (R-Tucson), will not be releasing his second quarter figures until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Giffords campaign chairman Michael McNulty noted in the release announcing the totals that last quarter's contributions came from 1,898 individual contributors, with the average contribution coming in at around $200.

"This tells me that the voters in our district know better than anyone else how tireless [sic] Congresswoman Giffords has been in advocating for Southern Arizona in the House of Representatives," McNulty was quoted as saying. "These Arizonans come from all walks of life, they care about the future and they want the kind of change and common sense solutions that Congresswoman Giffords is fighting for."

At midnight last night, the 2nd quarter of the FEC fundraising year ended.  This will be the final, and most likely important quarter any candidate with a primary has.  This will be the last time they have to show potential donors they can raise money.  For many candidates there is that catch-22, show me you can raise money, then I will donate.

One thing to remember, money alone will not win an election, but you do need enough money to get your message and name out.  It is one thing to be out raised 5:1 when both candidates have plenty of money to get their message out.  Its something else all together when one out raises the other 5:1 and the later doesn’t have enough money to spread their message

U.S. Rep. John ShadeggU.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-3) may be regretting his brief flirtation with dropping out of the re-election hunt - it cost him almost $60,000. PolitickerAZ.com has learned that during the two weeks Shadegg was not a candidate for his CD3 seat, he was compelled by donors to return a large amount of contributions.

When he filed his FEC report two weeks ago, it included $59,800 in refunds for the first quarter - when in all previous quarters the total was $1,900. The mystery was cleared up by major contributors and the campaign, who revealed the reason to be Shadegg's short - and costly - break from the race.

Through out yesterday we posted Congressional FEC numbers.  Today we will take a look at them together by district.

CD1 which is an open seat being vacated by Rick Renzi.

Democrats

Rep. John Shadegg (R-3) netted almost $151,000 in the first three months of the year - but his filing total includes nearly $60,000 in refunds. Had those contributions not gone back out the door, Shadegg would have come close to, but not succeeded in, besting challenger Bob Lord, who's drawn $220,000 in contributions since the start of the year.