First-time candidate Shaughnessy Naughton filed her first financial report to the FEC on Monday, revealing that she has $89,000 cash on hand. She raised just over $51,000 and loaned her campaign $38,000.
Naughton declared her candidacy in May, giving her one less month to raise money compared to her primary opponent Kevin Strouse, who announced his campaign at the start of the quarter in April. She did have an advantage in terms of expenses, though, spending literally only $80 on her campaign, showing that no money has gone to waste.
Her investment of $38,000 in her own campaign nearly matches Strouse, who put $35,000 of his own money into his campaign. This would suggest both candidates are in for the long haul.
Naughton, however, couldn’t compete with Strouse in terms of establishment support. While Strouse received $18,500 in donations from PACs, Naughton got only $1,000 (from the campaign of Dan McCaffery, who ran for AG in 2012).
One bright spot for the Naughton campaign, though, is that this week The Hill newspaper named the PA-8 Democratic primary one of its top five primary races to watch.
It’s highly likely that Naughton campaign will try to hold Strouse’s backing from DC Democrats against him as they already used this line of attack when Rep. Steve Israel of the DCCC held a fundraiser for Strouse.
Nonetheless, the big question remains whether Naughton will be able to match Strouse in fundraising. In June, she attended a training session for female candidates in Philadelphia held by Emily’s List, the influential PAC that focuses on electing women to office.
2 Responses
Because she has been living in Philadelphia for the last decade and doesn’t meet the residency requirement to run for the state house. She couldn’t even vote in the Bucks County primary elections for municipal candidates this Spring because she was still registered to vote in Fairmount, Philadelphia.
Why doesn’t she run for the state legislature?