Search
Close this search box.

PA-6: Costello Outshines Trivedi in Q1

Costello
Costello

After Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-Chester) decided to step down from his position as the Representative of Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District, the 2014 race for that seat became highly contested, with promise of national attention and whispers of big name candidates.

Democrats have seen the district as an opportunity to pick up a seat in the House, while Republicans have mobilized in an effort to retain it. And now the 1st quarter financial numbers are in, and they show a less exciting, less close race than we all had hoped.

Manan Trivedi

This is Trivedi’s third time campaigning as a Democrat in PA-6, having lost to Gerlach in the general by large margins in both 2010 and 2012. But this time around he does not have to worry about the popular Gerlach and he even won the support of his only primary challenger, Mike Parish, last month following Parrish’s withdrawal.

Trivedi raised $132,416.50, but has yet to spend much — only $19,387.89. He sports $111,831.52 cash on hand and is not held down by any debts.

A great deal of his funding in this quarter also came from personal and familial contributions. One would have expected a stronger base of support for a candidate who had previously run in the district, especially since he believed he would have a primary challenger for most of the period.

However, Trivedi’s results pale in comparison to his Republican adversary.

Ryan Costello

As PoliticsPA wrote earlier this week, Republican Ryan Costello has done a fantastic job fundraising in this year’s 1st quarter.

He raised $344,450.00, and like Trivedi has not spent much on his campaign — only $39,141.34. That will most certainly change as the general approaches, and Costello has $305,308.66 of cash on hand to work with.

“These fundraising numbers are a reflection of local residents desire to get our country back on the right track by finding bipartisan solutions to the challenges facing the nation, implementing policies that will stimulate the economy and grow jobs, and restoring fiscal responsibility in Washington,” Costello said.  “Voters are tired of the partisan bickering and want to know that their voices are really being heard by their representatives in Congress.”

Costello, the Chairman of the Chester County Board of Commissioners, has received a ton of financial support, which is most likely due to the strong desire of the Republican Party to retain the PA-6 seat. Many members of the Pennsylvania Republican Congressional delegation wrote checks in support of their hopeful colleague. In addition, many of Costello’s donors may have been weary of Trivedi’s fundraising experience, considering this is his third attempt at the seat.

Whatever the reason, Costello out collected Trivedi nearly 3 to 1 and is suddenly positioned to run a very strong campaign.

Both candidates are running unopposed in their respective primaries.

14 Responses

  1. Manan is by far the better candidate to represent all the people of the 6th. He has the most thorough command of all the issues facing the district, and he knows how to go about addressing those issues in collaboration with folks from both parties. I’ve seen him in action. He listens to folks’ concerns and responds, rather than aggressively shouting down anyone who dares to disagree. In other words, he’s a grown-up who knows how to respect others even if they’re not pouring cash into the campaign coffers.

  2. “Costello, the Chairman of the Chester County Board of Commissioners, has received a ton of financial support, which is most likely due to the strong desire of the Republican Party to retain the PA-6 seat. Many members of the Pennsylvania Republican Congressional delegation wrote checks in support of their hopeful colleague”
    Just low hanging fruit for Costello. Manan will see stronger numbers in the next period. This race isn’t about money, although that is all the media likes to write about. The race is about ideas, and Ryan’s quote is pretty funny “Voters are tired of the partisan bickering and want to know that their voices are really being heard by their representatives in Congress.” So how exactly is Ryan going to change all that??? it is his party that has caused the obstruction and partisanship!!!

  3. Quote from Poster: “As Chair, Vaughn does not “inspire” people to contribute.”

    Obviously, Manan isn’t inspiring many people to contribute either! But sure, blame one of the the four county party chairs instead. Already pointing fingers!

  4. Manan is an outstanding candidate, especially considering he is a combat veteran and a doctor.

    Manan is handicapped in this race by the ridiculously ineffective Chester County Democratic Committee (Chester County has a majority of the voters in the 6th District), which has been run by Chair Michele Vaughn for the last 8 years. There is no democratic organization to speak of in this congressional district – no contributors, no supporters – absolutely ZERO, ZIP, ZILCH. This is just another shining example of Vaughn doing her best to help the Republicans.

    Just out of curiosity, did Vaughn give Manan $1,000 to start his campaign like her republican counterpart Val DiGiorgio donated to Ryan Costello?

    As Chair, Vaughn does not “inspire” people to contribute – especially with her non-existent county-wide organization which she is responsible for building – thereby rendering a ‘toss-up’ seat to ‘leans Republican’ before the first campaign report was filed.

  5. These fund raising numbers reflect the fact that Ryan has done a great job in the various positions that he has held for the past 10+ years. People that known him believe he will be a great congressman. Ryan is in touch with the 6th District, Trivedi is not.

  6. Costello has a brand new baby too. Not an excuse and frankly it is a wash since they both are battling 2 am feedings. An initial contribution from Digiorgio show solidarity – an initial contribution of $56 shows lack of donor confidence. Manna should have had 10 -$10,400 donations from previous donors if he truly thinks he is the better candidate. Costello raised more that Meehan or Fitzpatrick demonstrating despite what SEPA thinks about Corbett SEPA cares about this race. Keep it up Costello.

  7. Pete-
    I’m not a member of the Trivedi campaign, nor offering an excuse (especially for something that doesn’t require an excuse nor associated implication that something is wrong).

    Petitions had to be the highest priority focus, because no amount of money will help if you aren’t on the ballot.

    I think some key staffers weren’t even slated to start until after petitions. (either due to ongoing interviews or waiting for personnel to become available from their previous jobs)

    So, I’m not particularly concerned about Trivedi’s first report, as I don’t consider it even slightly representative of future fundraising quarters.

  8. If the Trivedi campaign’s excuse is that the candidate himself was too focused on getting petitions signed to call his big donors from the past two election cycles then they are in real trouble.

  9. 13thDistDem-
    I’m not making an excuse, but rather giving an explanation that Manan was in the race for only half a quarter. Even once he announce his decision, he didn’t start fundraising right away (as you noted Feb 20th as his first donation). So, like you acknowledged, he’s had only 40 days of fundraising. He also was concentrating on petitions, not fundraising, as well as competing with Parrish for endorsements and attention. (and on a personal note, having a new baby taking up time).

    I think Manan will see a dramatic improvement in his fundraising next quarter as his team is in place and up to speed.

    The 6th district is tough for Dems, no matter how you slice it. The Republicans have a significant registration advantage. Gerlach was a popular incumbent, but he’s gone this year, and the Dems endorsed Trivedi to take this opportunity for the open seat.

  10. Rep. Gerlach announced that he was retiring in early January. Manan ‘announced’ on February 11th. That gave him over a month and a half to raise — if he only started raising money the day he announced. Which if he did I would be shocked.

    Looking at the FEC reports, the first donation Ryan Costello raised was on 1/17/14, for $1000 from Val DiGiorgio. That’s to be expected. So he had effectively 14 days in January, 28 days in February, and 31 days in March for fundraising. So that gives his a raise/day number of $4,718.49 (given 73 days of fundraising).

    Manan’s first donation was received on February 20th, a $56 donation from Apfel Fanchon. So he was raising for 9 days in February and 31 days in March. So that gives him a raise/day of $3,310.41. So, charitably, Manan isn’t losing the fundraising race 2.5:1, he’s only losing it 1.5:1.

    That also requires that you ignore the fact that Manan has run twice before in this district where he did a not too shabby job fundraising and harps on the fact that he was the strongest candidate the Democrats could nominate.

    So David, the fact that Manan got into the race late is no excuse. He has the fundraising contacts that should have been able to make up for the late start — and he shouldn’t have HAD a late start to begin with. The issue you should talk about is that people thought he was running against Parrish. I think the next quarter will be more telling. However, I am thoroughly unimpressed by $130,000 from the low-hanging fruit donors from a third-time candidate.

    And Vincent, don’t trip over yourself to explain this. Manan might be popular on the internet, but the reality is he’s run for this seat twice before and lost — badly — including one year with presidential turnout. If I’m a donor, I’m asking Manan what his reasonable path to victory is in a district in which he doesn’t live and which is 6 points more conservative than the district in which he already lost. And getting doubled up on fundraising isn’t really a compelling argument.

  11. Trivedi formally announced in early February, Costello in late January. If anyone had the fundraising advantage, it should have been Trivedi who is now on his third campaign for this seat and has access to all of his previous donors from the last two campaign cycles. But after turning up two big losses in the last two cycles, its clear that Trivedi’s past donors don’t want to invest in a perennial also-ran. Rothenberg, Sabato and others all favor Costello to win this race and have reported Dem leadership disappointment that Parrish dropped out.

  12. Let’s not forget that Trivedi got a late start entering the race, and has been in it for only half of the first quarter. I don’t thing he even started staffing up until March.

    He also has name recognition from previous runs, as well as fundraising contacts.

    Corbett is really going to a major drag on the GOP ticket in PA.

Email:
  • Do you agree that ByteDance should be forced to divest TikTok?


    • Yes. It's a national security risk. (60%)
    • No. It's an app used by millions and poses no threat. (40%)
    • What's ByteDance? (0%)

    Total Voters: 30

    Loading ... Loading ...
Continue to Browser

PoliticsPA

To install tap and choose
Add to Home Screen