Southern Arizona Congresswoman Martha McSally had another titanic fundraising quarter, bringing in nearly $853,000.
McSally’s fundraising machine is an astonishing thing to watch in action: Even before she was elected, she was one of the best congressional fundraisers in the country. She raises so much money that her accountants can barely keep track of all of it, as several amended FEC reports have shown.
Team McSally spends a lot of those dollars on that fundraising—in the last quarter, she reported expenses of just under $585,000—but she’s still had more than $2.2 million on hand as of March 31 for her reelection campaign.
That kind of enviable warchest certainly puts McSally in a great position going into the 2016 race for CD2, which includes eastern Pima County and all of Cochise County. But McSally still has to worry at least a little bit about how the national mood will affect the 2016 race. (If she weren’t worried about whether voters in CD2 will send her back for a second term, why would she be dodging the question of whether she would support Donald Trump at the top of the GOP ticket?)
The two Democrats who are vying for the chance to run against McSally had very different quarters. Former state lawmaker Matt Heinz raised nearly $205,000, as he has in previous quarters. (Heinz gave the campaign $11,648, which helped him clear that $200,000 benchmark.) He spent about $121,758 during the quarter, leaving him with just under $388,698 in the bank.
Bill Scheel, a Team Heinz campaign strategist, called the first quarter “another solid fundraising quarter for Matt, so we’re happy. We think that Matt has established himself the de facto nominee at this point.”
Democrat Victoria Steele—who has racked up an impressive series of endorsements, including the support of Congressman Raul Grijalva—continues to struggle on the fundraising front.
Steele reported raising just under $40,000—which was nearly as much as the $39,199 she spent. As a result, Steele had just under $45,000 in the bank.
It’s certainly true that you don’t need more money than your opponent to win a congressional race—but you do need enough to remain a competitive candidate, and so far, Steele doesn’t appear to be hitting those benchmarks.
We also hear that Steele has parted ways with her campaign manager, Keith Rosendahl. The Weekly reached out to both Steele and Rosendahl to find out what’s going on with the campaign, but didn’t hear back from either of them today.
This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2016.
At the county fair Saturday, both parties had booths in one of the buildings. The R booth was packed and people were lined up to get info.
There were two people manning the D booth. They were texting on their cell phones while sitting all alone.
Stark contrast.
What blithering nonsense! Mr. Nintzel appears to reach a climax over the amount of out-of-state money entering this race. The fact that rich fat cats and Wall Street billionaires are buying our election is a SACRILEGE! Add to that is the fact that Ms. McSilly does nothing to earn this money except to vote, contributing NOTHING of substance for even the conservative movement. But lazy fools like Mr. Nintzel perpetuate this corrupt, disgusting practice. Hire a real reporter, Tucson Weekly.
I agree with Nintzel that McSally should have worries. There are many that see her as just another in a long line favoring big government solutions to all problems, like her mentor McCain. She may go down for the non-votes.
While Rat T sees a stark contrast at the Fair booth traffic, I see a stark contrast in candidates with values and willingness to bring issues to the table. McSally is hiding from her party label pretending to support Social Security and Medicare for seniors while following the Republican party line. Wait until the fall election when the Republican Presidential candidate comes to town, will she be up on the stage with him? I doubt it, she probably left on the stagecoach the night before. If she can’t stand up and be counted now, how long will she be able to hide from the massive issues facing the people of Arizona?
I just sent a $20.00 check to McSally. Knowing that Raul the ragpicker supports Steele is all the incentive I needed.
McSally may comment on the United Healthcare announcement to pull out of Obama care as it is not financially sustainable. That whole mess is about to come apart.
RAT T, wishful thinking. The Affordable Care Act is becoming more successful in providing a wider audience stable, affordable and available health insurance. Expansion is the next logical step, broaden the base and widen available plans.
People all across the country are clapping and cheering its yet modest success. Time to mimic the Wall Street cry the Social Security System is going broke, switch to investing in Wall Street let us have your money to play retirement funds game. Cut taxes like Kansas and watch your state’s economy spiral “DOWN”.
Tell that to my neighbor’s son who lost his job because his boss couldn’t afford Obummer care. Sure, they now have insurance. Too bad they can’t afford the deductible. Name me one country, state, town, county, etc. that taxed itself into prosperity. Kool Aid drinkers like you scare me.
I really hoped most of you weren’t too lazy to google it yourselves, but what should I expect.
UnitedHealth’s announcement comes after nonprofit health insurance cooperatives created by the ACA reported deep 2015 losses and as other major insurers like Aetna have questioned the viability of the exchanges, which are a key element behind the ACA’s push to expand insurance coverage.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITEDHEALTH_ACA_EXCHANGES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-04-19-09-14-34
All the people who hit dislike did so probably because they dislike the fact that Obummercare turned out to be a bust. Actually, it’s just what Obummer wanted to happen. Start putting the private companies out of business and before you know it we’ll all have to turn to the Gov’t. for coverage. Then he’ll get what he wanted all along, a single payer system that humps like him and bag of rags Grijalva lust for.
I’m amazed that Ms. Kilpatrick didn’t give Ms. Steele her mailing list. I haven’t received any mailings at all.
Gary, you have your Congressional Districts mixed up. Steele is running in CD 2, Kilpatrick is CD 1. Not that trades don’t happen because they do. All you have to do is get a list of reported contributions and go to work begging for bucks. Hell of a way to run a streetcar but a least you’re not under the thumb of hidden donors of “dark money”.
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