Following yesterday’s post about the 26 House Democratic freshmen from seats held by Republicans prior to 2008, here are their first quarter 2009 fundraising totals:*
Although there’s some disparity between the high end (NJ3’s John Adler’s, $464K) and the low (FL8’s Alan Grayson’s, $144K), the totals are relatively tightly clustered; more than half the 25 frosh for which there are data are bounded between $221K and $301K. If fundraising continues at this pace, most of these freshmen should have somewhere between $1.5 to $2 million for their initial re-elects. Not bad.
Given the wealth of his district, it’s not surprising to see CT4’s James Himes, who unseated Chris Shays, near the top of the list. Of greater concern to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are those at the bottom: OH16’s John Boccieri and NC8’s Larry Kissel both won with 55 percent in 2008, but FL8’s Alan Grayson and OH1’s Steve Dreihaus squeaked by with tighter, 52-48 victories. They may need to start ringing the register a bit more in the year ahead.
(*These are total quarterly receipts as of March 31, 2008, not total cash-on-hand. For some reason, the Federal Election Commission did not have a figure for Nye.)