Dispelling rumors that her fundraising for governor was lackluster, the Allyson Schwartz campaign revealed that they raised $6.5 million.
Schwartz transferred $3 million from her congressional fundraising account into her fund for the governor’s race, bringing her exclusively governor’s fundraising to $3.5 million, still a formidable total.
“Our campaign’s broad grassroots support shows Pennsylvanians are excited about Allyson bringing a different type of leadership to Harrisburg that takes on the status quo,” campaign manager Corey Dukes said. “As the Commonwealth’s next Governor, she’ll bring high expectations, effective leadership and a bold vision for Pennsylvania’s future.”
The campaign stated that they raised the funds from over 8,000 individual donors from every county in Pennsylvania, and from across the country. This has not yet been verified by the official report.
The finance reports were for the period ending December 31st and aren’t published until the very end of January, but some campaigns who are pleased with their efforts have released their topline numbers.
In early December, former Revenue Secretary Tom Wolf’s campaign touted raising $2.9 million in addition to the $10 million that he had pledged to contribute himself.
Former DEP Secretary Katie McGinty was rumored to have raised between $2-2.5 million.
Also in the race for the Democratic nomination are State Treasurer Rob McCord, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, former DEP Secretary John Hanger, Lebanon County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz and Cumberland County minister Max Myers.
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18 Responses
@Katthleen3
I wonder how many Corporation’s has bought One Term Corbett?
It would be interesting to identify the specific unions that bought and paid for Schwartz.
Has this discussion forgotten, in the poll on this very page, “What is the most important factor in picking your governor candidate?”
Policies and Ideology (66%)…
Money (1%)…
Brittany –
Please check your facts before writing the article. In the Schwartz article and the Smith article, you wrote: “Finance reports were due on December 31st and aren’t required to be published until the very end of January….” That statement is 100% incorrect. Campaign finance reports were not due December 31, 2013 (neither federal nor state). Campaign finance reports are due January 31, 2014. December 31 was the end of the reporting period to be included in the year-end reports due January 31, 2014. January 31 is the reporting deadline, not the date by which the information must be published. This is very basic, introductory political knowledge. If you are going to be the “managing editor” of a political news website, please learn at least the basic information. Thank you.
Despite your correction, I’m still going to call this article 47% accurate. Lets not toss around words like “formidable” til you have something to compare it to! How formidable will it look when 2-3 other candidates come in the same range?
Brittany-
Good wording on the clarification. Still interested in the cash-on-hand number.
Campaigns are notorious for delaying expenditures until after reporting deadline so they can report highest cash-on-hand numbers possible.
Of course the “money raised” number is going to be higher still, since it doesn’t include any expenses.
When McCord’s numbers come in, they’ll be some interesting spin to unravel there. He didn’t declare “officially” until September, so he’ll have transferred money from his state treasurer campaign.
It’s still a statewide office, without the federal limits, and it was an open secret that Rob was running. But, the reporting is going to have to balance one quarter’s worth of fundraising with the transfer, and let the rest of spin the heck out of it with projections. 🙂
So the Schwartz camp’s claim is that she is a front runner because of the money she raised from DC special interests and transferred over to her gov account? Sounds fair, after all, it was the DC special interests that got her into the race in the first place.
Great job, Brittany. Instead of spin, you reported the campaign claims so if there are any inaccuracies, the campaigns are to blame! You’ve done an awesome job so far and politicspa will only improve with you there!
Thanks for the catch! Story has been edited.
Desmond-
I agree that they probably pulled a fast one in including the $3 in the $6.5, but I won’t declare it so as fact until PoliticsPA calls the campaign with a clarification and updates their story.
So her actual RAISE was $3.5 million. Not that impressive compared to Wolf’s $2.9 million.
That doesn’t exactly “dispell” any rumors, in fact it proves them correct.
I just got a call from one of my sharp political friends and he brought up an interesting point:
What is the cash-on-hand number?
The amount raised ($6.5 mil or $3.5 mil + $3 mil transfer) doesn’t tell us how much they are spending/burning money on staff, fundraising, etc.
If they raised all that, but only had a half-million on hand, they’d be up a creek without a paddle. But, if they had $6 million on hand, they’d be in pretty good shape to get out their message.
So, PoliticsPA, let’s try to get the Cash-on-Hand number as well as fundraising totals (and details on whether there was transfer from previous accounts).
Curious to see rob mccords numbers Schwartz with that bank roll I think we see why she is the front runner going to be very hard to beat.
Congrats on reporting with 47.69% accuracy, Brittany!
Faygull-
An excellent point. The story reads:
“they raised $6.5 million in 2013”
I would agree, that an account transfer of $3 million shouldn’t count if the money was not raised in 2013.
$6.5 million is impressive and nothing to sneeze at.
However, a little math reveals how little of it could be considered “grassroots”.
The average donation for $6.5 million and 8000 donors is roughly $800 per donor.
Now, anyone who follows these numbers knows that “grassroots” donors give more like $50.
Let’s assume that 80% gave $200 or less, and then be generous and say this 80% all gave $200. That would come out to about $1.3 million. This would leave $5.2 million from the remain 20% of donors, at an average $3,250 per donor.
In a state race like this, with unlimited donations, we know there are plenty of donors in the $10,000 and above range with corporate, non-grassroots interests.
The question to ask the campaign is: What is the MEDIAN donation?
(Median is the middle value when the list is sorted. So, in this case, it would be the contribution of donor ranked 4000 from the top and from the bottom.)
Wow you all suck at political reporting. Schwartz did not raise $6.5 million in 2013. She raised $3.4 million and transferred $3.1 million from her Congressional account — and the vast majority of that $3.1 million was carried over from previous years.
According to the FEC, she transferred $3 million on 3/31/2013, so there is no way she raised that in 2013.
Here are the FEC reports: http://awesomescreenshot.com/0d025ofn1d
http://awesomescreenshot.com/0b525ogg97
Article and author didn’t question how much of the $6.5 m was a congressional account transfer. If it was a $3 m transfer, in no way is a $3.5 m haul over 10 months, front runner status.