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Q4 Senate: Toomey Reaches $4M COH, Sestak has $1M

Senator Toomey and Admiral Sestak
Senator Toomey and Admiral Sestak

The fourth quarter was a busy time of fundraising for those running to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate.

Senator Pat Toomey tops the group with $4,045,182 on hand. Prospective candidate Joe Sestak has about a quarter of that, but still managed to hit the one million mark with $1,025,758 cash on hand.

Senator Bob Casey comes in at the bottom with only $228,463 on hand for Q4, but won’t face reelection until 2018.

Pat Toomey:

For the fourth quarter, Toomey raised $765,538 in total. Splitting that amount up between donations from individuals and donations from PACs, he received $643,538 from individual donors and $144,100 from PACs.

This means a large majority of his donations, 81%, came from individuals. It also means that he will be in really good shape when he faces reelection in 2016, particularly if he continues to raise money at this rate.

Toomey spent $370,329 on various expenses generally related to fundraising. Hundreds of thousands went to direct mail and postage, which is a major fundraising tool, especially for GOP candidates. There were also the typical expenses toward political consultants and staff.

Toomey has been in office since 2011. Before that, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s 15th District from 1999-2005.

Toomey has faced Sestak before in the 2010 Senate race, where he beat Sestak with 51% of the vote compared to Sestak’s 49%.

Joe Sestak:

The former Congressman came in with a respectable $150,326 raised. At $137,316, 91% of his donations came from individuals. $13,010 came from PACs.

A couple of notable donors are former Congressman Jason Altmire, who gave $2,600, and a pair of unions that donated $5,000 each. Generally, though, Sestak’s donors are ones who have given to his campaign before in previous runs. He also had a solid number of small dollar donors.

Most of the $37,743 Sestak spend went toward typical campaign expenses, such as staff and consultants. About $10,000 went to printing, most likely part of fundraising efforts, and $7,500 went to political consultant Robert Weaver.

Currently, Sestak is only exploring a bid for the U.S. Senate. However, if he does choose to run, Sestak may have more to worry about than Toomey and Casey.

PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane and MontCo Commissioner Josh Shapiro could cost Sestak a pretty penny in the primary as well, as both are rumored to be considering Senate runs.

Bob Casey:

Casey raised $195,971 for Q4. In regards to money from donors and PACs, his numbers were a little more evenly distributed. Only 56% came from individuals, at $109,571, and $88,650 came from PACs, 44%. His donor crowd consisted of the usual Democratic regulars: lawyers and unions.

Casey spent $127,775 on various typical campaign expenses, including staff, fundraising and political consultants.

Senator Casey has been in office since 2007. From 2005 until 2007 he served as State Treasurer, and from 1997 to 2005 Casey was the Auditor General of Pennsylvania.

7 Responses

  1. We have Toomey as Pennsylvania’s Junior U.S. Senator through a series of events–first–Rendell and crowd dried up any campaign funds for other Democratic candidates other than Specter—second—Sestak stayed in despite all the efforts to get him out and beats Specter (surprise?) in the primary and then loses in what was a major Republican victory year, nationwide, by the slimest of margins to a candidate who doesn’t even come close to representing the interests of our state. Admiral Sestak——–please don’t run you served your country with honor and distinction. Toomey wants you to run—he can be beat but unfortunately not by you.

  2. Unsanctioned R-
    Us agreeing is rare. Shows how obviously bad Sestak is.

    A good leader is someone people are more interested in following the more they get to know them, not the other way around.

    But, Sestak is not so much a leader as someone who temporarily fools people into following him (until they figure out who he really is).

  3. David is spot on re: Sestak
    The people who have worked for him like him the least. To a lesser degree, Sam Rohrer had the same effect.
    But, history is full of leaders like that.

  4. Merry-
    Nope. It’s a woman. I heard about it because I can do look-ups on my phone using my VoterWeb database system, and I was asked to find out more about her. All I can say at this point is that she sent an email to the powers-that-be expressing interest in running.

    I don’t know if it went any further than the email.

  5. @David Diano — surely you don’t mean Ken Harper, who barely managed to win 40% of the vote for mayor of his own hometown borough last year? Nice enough guy, but he would lose his own household in an election — not a prayer in the 5 county mess that is PA7

  6. BTW… Sestak was able to raise money much faster than this when he was a sitting congressman (rather than a failed Senate candidate who p*ssed off Democrats statewide).

    Currently, there is no Dem challenger against Meehan (though possible challenger with initials K.H. came into the discussion at state committee).

    If Sestak really wants to get back in the news and fundraising game, he needs to switch his campaign to Congress and run against Meehan.

    As an added incentive, I’ll even hold off bashing him here until the Nov election. (That’s got to be a huge incentive as holding back is likely to give me a stroke.)

    At Joe’s current rate, he’ll have less than $2 million a year from now. That’s about half of what he had entering the Senate race last time. Also, it would be a whole new election cycle…. so he can get all those people who maxed out for him already to give again.

    If Joe runs for Senate, as a non office-holder, current/popular officials like Kane or Shapiro will crush him. However, if he takes back the 7th, he’d be a “hero” in the party.

    Now, that all said, I don’t think Sestak will take my advice. Instead, he will continue to sink into obscurity as a one-shot-wonder.

  7. Sestak’s expenses also include about $85 per month for his brother (the only one listed under “payroll”) and about $582/month for health insurance. Presumably for said brother. This has been going on for years (see campaign reports for 2011 and 2012 when Sestak wasn’t raising any money, but his brother was only one on the payroll and health benefits many times salary were paid out.)

    The other two staffers are paid under the heading “consulting fees”. Thus, Sestak avoids paying benefits and employment taxes. Smells like something for an intrepid reporter or prosecutor to investigate.

    Sestak’s $150 is less than half of his previous quarter and represents his lowest quarter of the year. Joe is losing momentum at a stunning pace.

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