Kevin Strouse, a Democratic candidate in PA-8 seeking to take on Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks), announced that his campaign raised over $200,000 in the last fiscal quarter of 2013.

This brings the candidate’s fundraising total for the entirety of last year to about $605,000.

Perhaps most importantly, however, the campaign noted that they currently have $470,000 cash on hand which will give them some significant resources as they enter a spring primary contest with businesswoman Shaughnessey Naughton.

“I am honored to have the support of so many hard working men and women in Bucks and Montgomery Counties, who want and deserve a representative who gets things done and works to find reasonable solutions to problems instead of playing partisan games that waste our tax dollars and hurt the economy,” Strouse said.

Additionally, the campaign stated that they have received contributions from close to 2,000 individual donors. That number is important because it is both a measurement of the reach of the candidate and a potential future resource for further funds, as most donors don’t initially max out and can be approached down the line to donate again to the campaign.

Strouse’s financial numbers also compare quite favorably to former Rep. Patrick Murphy, a fellow veteran who was the last Democrat to hold the seat. As Thomas Fitzgerald of Philly.com noted when he first reported Strouse’s finances, at the end of 2005 Murphy had raised just under $98,000 in total funds.

Murphy would go on to defeat Fitzpatrick in 2006 in Fitzpatrick’s only defeat in his four congressional races. Fitzpatrick went on to reclaim the seat in 2010.

According to Rep. Fitzpatrick’s latest FEC report in the end of the third quarter, he has $1.04 million cash on hand.

Correction: This article originally stated that Fitzpatrick’s 2006 defeat was the only one of his political career. It has been changed to reflect the fact that 2006 was his only defeat among his campaigns for Congress.