Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick holds a large monetary advantage over Democratic challenger Kevin Strouse according to the campaign finance reports for the July 15th quarterly period. In fact, Fitzpatrick has seven times more cash on hand than Strouse.

Strouse has $268,720.50 available while Fitzpatrick is sitting on $1,906,830.20. In addition, Strouse spent more than he raised during the last quarter. Fitzpatrick, on the other hand, spent only about 20% of his contributions.

Contributions

Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick raked in $428,563.43 with $194,749.15 coming from Political Action Committees (PACs) and $203,603 from individuals.

Pioneer PAC, the Fitzpatrick Costello Victory Fund, and the Laborers’ International Union of North America PAC were among Fitzpatrick’s largest contributors.

Strouse, who raised $201,139.29 during the quarter, received a large chunk of his contributions from unions, including $5,000 each from the Machinists Non-Partisan Political League PAC, the Plumbers Local #690 PAC, the United Steelworkers, the United Automobile Workers, and the Sheet Metal Workers International.

In a sign that the party establishment is behind him, Strouse received $1,000 from DWS PAC, the political action committee of DNC Chairwoman and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Of the $201,139.29, Strouse received $54,584.34 from PACs and $121,879.02 from individual contributors.

Expenditures

Strouse spent $348,223.47 during the quarter, which means that his total cash on hand declined by $147,084.18. The Democratic nominee had to spend that money in order to defeat Shaughnessy Naughton in the primary.

A large portion of his money, $161,905 to be exact, went to GMMB Inc. for broadcast media. Another $19,800 was given to the Global Strategy Group for consulting and polling, and $46,253.06 went to the Pivot Group for print media.

Fitzpatrick’s expenditures totaled $79,624.90. He used $18,528.88 for consulting by the Theodore Company, and $6,000 for consulting by KCC Consulting LLC. Kronco.com Inc. received $4,575.86 from the Fitzpatrick campaign for printing purpose.

Interestingly, Fitzpatrick also paid $2,500 to Ohio’s Republican Congressman Pat Tiberi’s Pioneer PAC, which also donated $9,000 back to Fitzpatrick’s campaign.

The numbers tell the story for the race in PA-8. Democrat Kevin Strouse showed some improvement after a tough primary but still faces an uphill financial battle. Meanwhile, the incumbent Rep. Fitzpatrick is sitting on over $1 million dollars thanks to a drama (and primary) free spring.

*Note: The July quarterly reports concern only May and June as April’s pre-primary reports were already released.