Rochester Post Bulletin: Walz outpaces GOP hopefuls in cash race

Edward Felker reports on the cash race in the Fighting First:

Demmer's report, posted by the FEC, showed he gave his campaign a personal loan of $95,000, which he combined with contributions of $18,625 to show overall fundraising for the quarter of $113,625. After expenses he reported cash reserves of $77,512.

Meanwhile, Day's campaign finance director Erica Ulstrom said the state senator would report his own loan to his campaign of $23,000. Combined with contributions, he was to report about $98,000 in total receipts. He had about $70,000 in cash reserves, she said.

Newcomer candidates Brian Davis of Rochester and Mark Meyer of Lake Crystal, like Walz and Day, had yet to file their reports to the FEC as of Friday. Meyer said in an interview that he would report net contributions of $1,650 and $4,542 in reserves, while Davis declined to estimate his report before filing it with the FEC.

For the year to date, Walz has raised slightly more then $565,000, his campaign said. That compares with about $120,000 overall by Day and $113,625 by Demmer. Walz said this spring that he planned to spend more time fundraising, and his campaign director, Richard Carlbom, said his FEC numbers met the congressman's expectations.

While the figures look quite lopsided, early money alone won't win the First, as Gil Gutknecht discovered to his surprise last November.  However, should Walz continue putting in long hours in Washington DC while staying accessible to constituents in the district, he'll be hard to beat.

We're not yet willing to say Tim Walz walks on water.  That will wait until the lakes freeze, and then it's nothing special.

 

Comments

[Kjohnson]

Since I was surprised to see a "Randy Demmer" T-shirt this early out, I'm thinking of a possible Walz fundraising game around it. It would go like a drinking game. Anytime a Walz supporter sees a Demmer T-Shirt they could put a dollar on a Walz paypal fundraising account.