Funds uneven in U.S. House race

When it comes to money to spend on Eastern Washington’s upcoming congressional campaign, incumbent Cathy McMorris Rodgers is so far ahead that opponents may need a telescope to see her.

McMorris Rodgers has raised more than $1 million through the first half of 2008, figures released last week show. That’s nearly 28 times the amount raised by her chief Democratic opponent, Mark Mays, who is in second place among the five candidates seeking to replace her in Washington’s 5th Congressional District race.

Mays had raised $36,085 through the end of June. McMorris Rodgers has raised more than that from a single ZIP code on Spokane’s South Hill.

Chad Radock, spokesman for the Mays campaign, said the disparity is a result of Mays’ late start. Mays, a psychologist and an attorney, had to slowly cut back on his patients and clients and didn’t begin campaigning in earnest until May. The campaign has recently hired a professional fundraiser and has two events planned that it expects to bring in cash,

While the take is meager at this point, Radock said Mays’ campaign is heartened to have 201 donors, with an average of about $100 per contribution. But because there have been a few big donors, it masks the fact that most contributions are $25 or less, which don’t have to be reported by donors’ names under Federal Elections Commission rules.

“Traditionally, most of the money in this race comes from outside the district, after the primary,” he added. Political action committees from the labor unions and other groups that support Democrats often wait to see how a candidate does in that first round of voting.

Mays said last week he doesn’t expect to match McMorris Rodgers in fundraising, but he hopes to have more than the minimum needed to run a low-budget campaign in the huge district, which he estimated would be $250,000. He said he hopes to raise about $650,000 and rely on a boost from young voters with a strong Internet and get-out-the-vote operation to make up for the difference in money.

McMorris Rodgers’ campaign fund lags slightly behind where she was at this time in 2006, when she spent $1.85 million to win her second term in the House. Through the first half of this year, she’d spent about half of the money raised, leaving her with more than $523,000 headed into the primary.

FEC reports indicate she may be able to raise as much as she needs, whenever she needs it. More than $400,000 of her contributions this year have come from 141 political action committees, but only five of those PACs have reached the $10,000 limit for the campaign.

For the Aug. 19 primary, she also faces challenges from the right, with three candidates – another Republican, a Libertarian and a Constitutional Party member – charging her and other Republicans in Congress with spending too much money and supporting a federal government that’s too big and overreaching.

Under the state’s new top two primary, the two candidates with the most votes move on to the general election, regardless of party.

Libertarian John Beck, a Gonzaga University economics professor, has reported $5,100 in campaign receipts, with all but $100 of it coming from personal funds.

Constitutionalist Randall Yearout and Republican Kurt Erickson, who comes from the wing of the GOP that supported Ron Paul’s presidency, are running low-budget campaigns that don’t need to file quarterly reports.

So is Democrat Barbara Lampert, a retired nursing home worker who runs for a political office each year without spending much money other than her filing fee.