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PA-Sen: Q2: A Closer Look at McGinty’s Financial Reports

Katie_McGintyKatie McGinty may be leading in the latest polls, but her opponent Sen. Pat Toomey holds a huge financial advantage over his challenger.

McGinty has seemingly rallied the party’s donor class around her campaign, picking up contributions from all corners of the country as Democrats look to win back the Senate. However, Toomey has been effective in raising the kind of money he’ll need to defend his seat with Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket.

With the 2016 Second Quarter reports now available, we examined where McGinty’s money is coming from and where it’s going.

Top-Line Numbers

McGinty’s general election campaign pulled in $1 million more than her primary set-up, picking up $2.8 million in contributions during the second quarter of 2016.

More than 2,300 individuals (who have given at least $200), including 1,025 from the Keystone State, made over 3,900 contributions to McGinty between the end of March and the end of June.

When Toomey’s re-election campaign released its $3.1 million Q2 fundraising total in July, it said the first-term senator had received almost 100,000 individual contributions and that 86% were under $200.

McGinty’s campaign spent just over $1.5 million between Apr. 8th and June 30th, with more than half going to one Washington, D.C.-based advertising firm.

After 12 months of campaigning, McGinty is sitting on $2.4 million in cash on hand – less than a third of Toomey’s $7.7 million warchest going into the final ten weeks of the election.

Contributions

In the month leading up to her Apr. 26th primary against Joe Sestak and John Fetterman, McGinty pulled in over $400K in individual contributions and another $41K from PACs.

In the two months after winning the Democratic Party’s nomination, McGinty raised over $1.76 million from individual donors and $544K from PACs.

INDIVIDUALS

McGinty’s solid Q2 fundraising total was driven by strong support in urban centers throughout the country. 31 cities contributed at least $10K to McGinty’s campaign, with Philadelphia topping the list with almost $275K in itemized contributions. Hundreds of donors in New York City ($175K), Pittsburgh ($114K), and Washington, D.C. ($110K) broke out their checkbooks for McGinty, while Chicago rounded out the top 5 with 31 people contributing over $48K.

McGinty broke the $30K mark in two cities (Boston and Bryn Mawr), and raised more than $20K in seven cities (Berkeley and San Francisco, CA; Bethesda and Chevy Chase, MD; Seattle, WA; and Harrisburg and Wynnewood, PA).

Almost two-thirds ($1.775 million) of McGinty’s Q2 money came from out of state.

McGinty had some notable individual donors, including many of the people she used to work with while Chief of Staff for Gov. Tom Wolf: Physician General Dr. Rachel Levine ($2,700), Treasurer Tim Reese ($2K), former Secretary of Planning & Policy John Hanger ($2K), Inspector General Grayling Williams ($500) and DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn ($200).

State Reps. Dan Frankel and Edwin Pashinski each donated $500 to McGinty’s campaign.

McGinty also had a couple famous backers. Billionaire philanthropist George Soros and two family members contributed $8,100, while actress Jane Fonda kicked in $500.

PoliticsPA owner Larry Ceisler contributed $500.

PACS

131 political action committees made donations to McGinty during the second quarter of 2016 to the tune of $585K.

Five PACs contributed over $20K each – Green Senate Impact 2016 ($41,540), Pennsylvania Senate 2016 ($35,150), Secure Our Senate ($29,813), Progressive Victory 2016 ($27,033) and Women on the Road 2016 ($21,017).

Nine others contributed at least $10K – Democratic Senate VictoryJustice 2016Transport Workers Union PACInternational Association of Fire Fighters PAC, as well as the leadership PACs of Democratic VP nominee Tim KaineMA Sen. Elizabeth WarrenDE Sen. Chris Coons and IN Sen. Joe Donnelly.

39 PACs contributed $5K each during Q2.

Expenses

Between April 7th and June 30th, McGinty spent just over $1.5 million, while Toomey’s campaign paid out $4,658,238 during the same period.

More than half of McGinty’s expenditures went to SKDKnickerbocker, a Washington D.C. advertisement production firm. The campaign paid $814,527, including payments of $301K and $405K to cover ad production costs on Apr. 11th and 15th, respectively.

Payroll was McGinty’s second largest expense during the second quarter, paying 21 part-time and full-time employees a total of almost $115K, and more than $54K in payroll taxes and processing fees.

Rapid Returns of Santa Monica, CA made over $101K in May for producing direct mailers for the McGinty campaign.

D.C.-based Rising Tide picked up $54K during Q2 for digital ad production/consulting, and Hart Research Associates made $43,500 during May.

Campaign Finance Consulting scooped over $35K for fundraising consulting and MBA Consulting Group was paid about $25K for compliance services.

McGinty spent $25K on grassroots organizing/voter contact by Liberty Square PAC and Monroe Press Inc, while Chartiers Group of Bridgeville, PA made $14,542 for strategic consulting during the second quarter.

The campaign paid out $55,419 in credit card processing fees for contributions from donors to fundraising organizations such as ActBlue and the League of Conservation Voters.

Almost $35K was spent to cover travel and mileage reimbursement costs, including $8,736 to the candidate herself, as well as $9,447 for lodging.

Printing and postage throughout the quarter cost $23,441 and event catering ran the campaign $20,604.

Though McGinty is leading in the polls, it’s hard to think of Toomey as an underdog after his strong second quarter.

7 Responses

  1. Are you ready kids? “Aye Aye Captain”
    I can’t hear you! “AYE AYE CAPTAIN”
    Oohh…
    Who lives in a trailer and drinks lots of TEA?
    “SpongeBob Retard”
    Stupid and yellow and troll-like is he!
    “SpongeBob Retard””
    If Repervlican nonsense be something you wish
    “SpongeBob Retard””
    Then drop To your knees and suck like a fish!
    “SpongeBob Retard””
    READY?
    SpongeBob Retard
    SpongeBob Retard”
    SpongeBob Retard”
    SPONGEBOB RETARD! AH AHH AHH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHH…

  2. The Dark Money Koch PACs are all in on Toomey. Regardless of who is supporting McGinty – anyone getting money from the Koch’s is an absolute NOOOOOO.

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