The first fundraising report from the commonwealth’s open contest in the 8th Congressional District is in.
State Representative Steve Santarsiero, who announced his candidacy last January, raised $222,000 from over 600 contributors during the first fiscal quarter of the year.
The campaign pointed out that this was the most money any Democratic challenger raised in the first quarter of a PA-8 race. In 2013, eventual nominee Kevin Strouse raised $254K but that was during the second quarter (Strouse, unlike Santarsiero, had DCCC support). In 2005, Patrick Murphy brought in just $90,000 in his first report during that year’s second quarter.
“To have raised this much, this early is quite a statement,” said Aubrey Montgomery, a campaign advisor. “With so many contributors, there is enormous room for growth as early supporters continue to give to support Steve throughout the campaign and new supporters continue to join.”
Santarsiero’s campaign reported that over half of the contributions were $100 or less and 99% of them came from Pennsylvania.
“I’m humbled by the swell of support for this campaign,” said Steve Santarsiero. “My number one priority has always been working to get the job done, whether we’re fighting to create jobs, tackling campaign finance reform, or protecting our environment. I plan to bring that same approach to Washington and I’m honored to have the help of so many to get there.”
Santarsiero is running against 2014 candidate Shaughnessy Naughton for the Democratic primary. The 8th district is comprised of Bucks County and parts of upper Montgomery County. It is currently being represented by retiring Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick.
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2 Responses
That’s it?
How can you be running for office non-stop since 2007 and only be able to raise $222,000?
Naughton was a candidate in 2014, not 2012. I believe the only candidates in 12 were Fitzpatrick and Kathy Bookvar.
Anyway, great showing for Santarsiero. The DCCC, is, as usual, fighting last year’s war and not helping the best challenger (so not counting incumbents) to take this seat the dems have had in 30 years (regardless of the final results in 2006, which featured an extremely narrow dem victory during a dem wave, it’d be hard to say Murphy looked this well positioned in April 2005).
2014 featured two dems with no electoral experience running, so d trip should have stayed out of it until one of them proved they could win *something* on there own and demonstrate having a base of support. Instead they short circuited the primary and gave us a 20 pt loss in November. Now, they’re ignoring a candidate with a strong base, who survived even the republican wave year that tanked Murphy (2010). The mind boggles.