Monday marked the deadline for campaigns to report their fundraising totals to the Alaska Public Offices Commission in the form of 30-day reports that cover a period from Aug. 12 (a week prior to the primaries) to Oct. 5.
There’s a ton of information from the reports to delve through (and a bit of untangling to do) and we’ll have a bigger, nerdy breakdown of the numbers out shortly, but for now here are some of the significant figures from this round of reporting.
$242.34
That’s the difference in fundraising totals in this year’s most-consequential legislative race between Republican Senate President Pete Kelly and Democratic Rep. Scott Kawasaki.
After returning to elected office in 2012 (while out of the country) and cruising to re-election for a second term in 2014 against a political newcomer, Kelly is up against his toughest challenge in Kawasaki, well-known for being a hardworking and scrappy campaigner.
Kelly had a marginally better fundraising period with $42,902 collected from Aug. 12 to Oct. 5 to Kawasaki’s $38,767. What’s bizarre, though, is that the two candidates are in a virtual tie in overall fundraising dollars.
The total campaign income for Kawasaki tops out at an impressive $167,319.28 to Kelly’s $167,076.94.
Kawasaki holds a roughly $20,000 advantage over Kelly when it comes to closing cash on hand for the final sprint of the election. Kelly has $82,643.02 to Kawasaki’s $101,976.21.
$18,839.92
That’s the total contributions reported by Jake Sloan, the Republican Party’s chosen one to run a write-in campaign against Republican Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux over in the controversy-riddled House District 15 race.
It’s a hefty sum for a write-in campaign and goes to show just how serious the Republican Party is about party loyalty (and, you know, capitalizing on all the voter fraud allegations). The party gave him $3,000, the Alaska Realtors Association PAC gave $1,000, the ConocoPhillips employee PAC gave $1,000 and the Insurance and Financial Advisors PAC gave him $500. The rest is individual contributions.
LeDoux still holds an enormous advantage over the field with $25,077.00 raised since the primary election. Her total income sits at a Senate-like $131,475.40 with $102,720.11 in campaign expenses. She has $33,180.34 closing cash on hand.
Democratic candidate Lyn Franks reported $7,504.39 in income during that same time period, putting her total campaign income at $11,765.11.
$6,243.88
Grier Hopkins, the Democratic candidate for Fairbanks’ House District 4, now holds a $6,243.88 lead in overall fundraising over Republican opponent Jim Sackett. Hopkins, a popular Democrat and nephew of the retiring Rep. David Guttenberg, had trailed Sackett through most previous reports thanks in large part to Anchorage enthusiasm about a potential pickup in the lefty district.
Hopkins brought in more than double Sackett’s fundraising since the primary, taking in $24,297.32 (bolstered in part by his own Anchorage fundraiser) while Sackett’s fundraising lost some steam with just $11,122.85 reported during that period.
Hopkins heads into the final stretch with $29,756.83 in on-hand cash. Sackett has $20,456.39 on hand.
Accused carpetbagger Tim Lamkin, an independent candidate Guttenberg accused of being a “pretty naive,” raised $1,250 during the reporting period with $1,000 of that coming out of his own pocket.
$350
That’s how much Juneau Democratic candidate Andi Story collected from non-Alaska contributors after her name appeared in President Barack Obama’s second round of midterm endorsements (along with Rep. John Lincoln). We count three contributions of $50, $50 and $250 that don’t list Alaska as their home turf after the endorsement was released.
Story raised $10,325.00 from all addresses after the endorsement, but that’s likely more attributable to a strong fundraising period since the primary with a total haul of $38,767.89. That puts her at a cumulative total of $73,696.15 to Republican Jerry Nankervis’ total campaign income of $89,571.32. Nankervis raised $18,722.56 since the primary.
Like with the race between Kelly and Kawasaki, Story and Nankervis are oddly neck-and-neck when it comes to closing cash on hand for the final stretch. Nankervis reported $43,860.33 to Story’s $42,530.56. That’s a lead of $1,329.77 in Nankervis’ favor, which shrinks to a $346.03 advantage for Story if you factor in the Nankervis campaign’s $1,675.80 in debt.
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