Joe Sestak chose to spend March walking the state by foot and it showed in his financial reports.
According to Jonathan Tamari of the Inquirer, the 2010 Democratic nominee raised just $312,000 in the first fundraising quarter. This gives the former Congressman about $1.7 million cash on hand.
In a vacuum those numbers could be good but they’re a problem when you’re running against an incumbent Senator who just pulled in $2.1 million and has $7.3 million cash on hand.
Additionally, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski jumped into the Democratic primary while national party leaders try to convince Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro to get into the race.
The ex-Admiral has always insisted that he wasn’t concerned with traditional campaign metrics like the support of party insiders and fundraising. So this news likely won’t upset him, though it could encourage his current and potential opponents.
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16 Responses
have you all forgotten that Marco Rubio won a contested Senate race in FL with only $367,000 COH while his opponent Charlie Crist had $4 Million COH and the backing of the GOP national 1 percenters?
It pains me to see Dems split and waste $ in contested primaries while the GOP money machine rolls on. I’ve studied Sestak on foreign policy issues and he is far and away the best and most experienced Dem we have in PA to take on the GOP war machine.
The crow has flown away:
swaying in the evening sun,
a leafless tree.
Sestak should stick to bobbing on the water…his last term in office was a setback for pa residents
It’s not about “Money electing” our next senator, it’s about having enough money to run a competitive race AND the Dems having a candidate of good character. Sestak fails on both criteria. While he’d arguably be better better for PA than Toomey, there are plenty of people who would be better and are actually residents of PA. Sestak is a tourist here from Virginia who just owns some property in Delco.
Joe has been on the ballot 6 times and his wife did not vote for him the last 4 times. That should tell you something.
I am a Sestak supporter, but this finance report is troubling. Unfortunately, there do not seem to be any better options. I will take Sestak over Pawlowski or Shapiro any day.
Even Democrats don’t like the arrogantly entitled Joe Sestak.
If we want “Money” to select our next Senator then Toomey will continue to be our Senator. But if we want the candidate who will be good for Pennsylvania then Sestak should be our next Senator.
Sestak had $1,560,667 cash on hand at the end of last quarter. He’s got $1.7 million on hand now ($1.65 to $1.749 depending on how $1.7 was round).
He raised $312,000 but went up $140,000 (range: $90,000 to $189,000)
So, roughly he spend $1 for every $2 he raised.
If Sestak is netting only $150,000 per quarter, that’s only $600K per year. Any decent challenger should be able to mop up the floor with him.
But, Joe isn’t even doing that well. One year ago, he was at $1.2 million cash-on-hand. So, $1.7 million – $1.2 million = $500,000 net gain in cash on hand for the past year.
At this pace, it would take Sestak about 11 years to raise the cash on hand that Toomey has NOW.
Phil-
“Joe is competent, experienced, authentic and accountable.”
Actually, he isn’t a single one of those things. He is an incredible bungler who has manged to overcome that deficit by working 3 times as hard as he should have.
He is still very inexperienced in politics. Check out his official campaign announcement.
The is not the slightest bit authentic. Total fraud.
Accountable? He blames everybody else for his failures. Talk to the people he’s fired without cause.
ABCDEF- Yes. Sestak is a repeat tourist. But, he’s overstayed his visit.
smarter –
By your argument, Sestak should have “coalesced” around Specter.
At some point, Sestak and the party leaders will reconcile. Joe is competent, experienced, authentic and accountable. He would have beaten Toomey in 2010, had it not been for an ill conceived primary with an 80 year old Republican who “switched horses.” Democratic voters saw that as disingenuous.
He should just keep on walking through Ohio.
It’s not time yet to “coalesce” around any candidate; we’re still more than a year away from the primary for this race. The next year should be spent shining a bright spotlight on the empty rhetoric coming from Toomey. He’s been hiding from his constituents for the past five years and it’s time to make sure Pennsylvanians know what this do-nothing Senator is all about.
Whistleblower – Good choice, considering that his family lives in Virginia, and he comes to PA to take a long walk occasionally.
Not concerned with traditional campaign metrics like fundraising? Hello??? I guess money isn’t important in a small state like Pennsylvania.
All these negative comments are disappointing but not surprising. Sestak lost by only a couple of points last time and 2016 will bring a presidential election and at least one highly contested congressional race. He’s a formidable candidate and instead of bashing him from afar maybe if the Dems actually coalesced around him they could beat Toomey.
He needs the Proclaimers to come and do a benefit concert for him. He’ll raise $100 million in two hours.
I’m not comprehending why Sestak is so fascinated with PA. I don’t feel like I know him. Am I missing something? What’s he done for PA other than split the party.
Glad to hear he’s not concerned with “traditional campaign metrics like support of party insiders and fundraising.” Probably equally unconcerned by other traditional campaign metrics like, polls, votes, or, um, winning?