In a world where money can reign supreme, Democratic challenger Mike Parrish is facing a Mt. Everest-sized fundraising gap.
After the first three quarters of 2015, incumbent Rep. Ryan Costello has opened up a $700K lead on Parrish in terms of cash on hand.
Top-Line Numbers
Costello added $251,260 to his already impressive cash stockpiles after the second quarter. The freshman representative spent $94,780.29 in Q3, leaving him with $739,243.61 cash on hand.
Over on the left, Parrish brought in just $28,918.50 from July 1st to Sept. 30th. Parrish raised over $45,000 in Q2, though he was only in the race for a matter of weeks. However, he has done almost all of his spending – $48,094.02 – in the third quarter.
Parrish now has $26,445.50 cash on hand, but owes just over $7,571.22 to NY research firm Grand Central Consulting.
Contributions
Costello’s latest FEC report was three times longer than Parrish’s, further illustrating the GOP congressman’s financial successes this quarter.
50 donors have chipped in at least $1,000 to Costello’s first reelection campaign, while Parrish’s nine biggest supporters threw in just $11,550 during Q3.
The city of Reading contributed more than that to Costello – $12,800 from six individuals – as did the Rothman Institute, which had nine employees give $12,300 between them.
Costello’s biggest individual contributor was Jay W. Faison, managing and founding partner of ClearPath Foundation, which supports conservative candidates with clean energy and climate change solutions.
Parrish picked up zero PAC donations in Q3, contributing to his lacklustre fundraising performance. On the other side, 70 political action committees threw $148,200 worth of support behind Costello. Costello’s biggest support came from Sen. Pat Toomey’s leadership PAC – Citizens for Prosperity in America Today – to the tune of $10,000.
PA Rep. Bill Shuster, as well as LA Rep. (and House Majority Whip) Steve Scalise and NC Rep. Patrick McHenry, each kicked in $10,000 to Costello through their leadership PACs. Almost a dozen other members of Congress have contributed to Costello, too.
Costello has raked in more than $39,000 from corporate donors, including Comcast/NBCUniversal, Kentucky Fried Chicken, General Electric, Walmart, McDonalds, Lockheed Martin and Citigroup.
Expenditures
Of the just over $48K Parrish spent in the third quarter, $21,885.35 went to the Merrill Advisory Group for consulting and reimbursements. $20,864.19 was expensed to Rittenhouse Political Partners for fundraising consulting and $4,975 for access to NGP Van’s databases.
Costello wrote out checks totaling $94,780 in Q3: almost $56,000 to the Theodore Company and KC Consulting for fundraising and finance consulting, $17,694.13 to Stonewall Links for a golf fundraiser and $6,390 to Dexter Campaigns to make sure his financial reports were in compliance with Federal Elections Commission regulations.
Parrish is the only Democrat running for Costello’s seat after Joe Denham quietly dropped out of the race.
The Cook Political Report rates the seat R+2. It is currently considered “Likely Republican”.
PA’s 6th district consists of parts of Berks, Chester, Lebanon and Montgomery Counties.
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5 Responses
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The GOP knew what they were doing when they rigged the 6th CD boundaries to make it almost impossible for a non-Republican to win. This year, the Democratic powers in Chesco and Montco were too quick to anoint Mike Parrish, who will function as a token opponent to the well-funded incumbent Ryan Costello. Why couldn’t they allow an open primary to give Democratic voters a real choice? I would have liked to have heard what Joe Denham had to say. These backroom decisions are why voter turnout keeps dropping. Only an estimated 25% of registered voters in PA bothered to vote this month. Another way to look at it is that only 20% of adults 18 and over participated on Nov. 3 to elect judges, district attorneys, country commissioners, etc.
these numbers are just terrible. its a head scratcher why brian mcginnis was out telling denham and other candidates like lindy lee not to run because this GOP-lite weight Parrish had everything locked up. looking at this report, thats laughable. maybe parrish didnt want to show his frack money too soon. its just another reason why mcginnis’ days are numbered as chair, too.
“Parrish picked up zero PAC donations in Q3,” you say that like it’s a bad thing.
Is Parrish a serious candidate? Or, is he in collusion with Abbot and Costello to keep other Dems from jumping in? Hopefully real Dems will jump in.