Representative Matt Cartwright (D-Lackawanna) outraised his Republican challenger Matthew Dietz nine times over and other Republican challenger David Moylan by an even greater margin.
The incumbent raised $145,246 in the fourth quarter of last year, finishing 2013 with $470,970.74 cash on hand.
Dietz raised just $6,749.32, spent $3,243.23 and finished the year with $12,923.92 cash on hand.
Moylan raised $3,800 and has just $1,973.43 on hand. He contributed $1,100 to himself.
Even if he were raising money at the rate of Cartwright, Dietz or Moylan would face an uphill battle winning a D+4 seat.
The 17th District was redrawn in 2011 to make it a safer Democratic seat. Cartwright defeated Republican Laureen Cummings 60-40 in 2012. Before that, he defeated 10-term incumbent Democrat Tim Holden by 14%.
Dietz works at LR Services in Allentown, which provides chartered flights and aircraft management. He and his family have lived in the Lehigh Valley for 22 years, although according to his website, he was born in New Jersey.
He’s a fiscally conservative Republican who has pledged to not take a taxpayer pension, vote for any law that doesn’t also apply to members of Congress and would refuse his paycheck in the event that Congress doesn’t pass a budget.
Loading ...
4 Responses
Personal loans basically work such that it exists on paper unless and until it is forgiven or paid off. Since the debt still exists, a candidate can pay him/herself back from the campaign fund. Usually you see candidates loan themselves money on a tight race, get elected, and then pay themselves back from fundraising in less competitive cycles.
Or, the bet can be forgiven, which counts as a contribution to the campaign even though no physical money changes hands.
So there’s no hard rule on when a loan has to be repaid from the candidates him/herself. So Cartwright can keep that $300k in the bank unless he wants to call the loan in on himself.
I think he loaned his campaign $300k. The obligation could be to himself. I don’t know if that is how it works.
If I’m reading the report correctly, it says:
$470,970.74 cash on hand
$390,000.00 Debts and Obligations Owed BY the Committee
So, that seems to me to be $120,970.74 remaining.
He defeated Holden 57-43 — 14%