Money Money Money Money

By: Lowell
Published On: 4/20/2005 1:00:00 AM

For us political junkies, the release of new campaign contributions data, through March 31, 2005, is like manna from heaven.  We'll be looking into it in detail over the next few days at VPAP, but for now here are the overall results for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General.

GOVERNOR
  Raised      Cash Balance  Raised 1Q05

Tim Kaine (D)  $7,959,917  $5,022,736  $2,642,261

Jerry Kilgore (R) $7,180,495  $3,851,126  $1,780,873

Russ Potts (I)  $373,440  $302,192  $309,932 

George Fitch (R)  $154,652  $116,395  $9,327

LT. GOVERNOR

Democrats
  Raised       Cash Balance  Raised 1Q05

Chap Petersen  $516,552  $232,044  $202,845

Phil Puckett  $228,244  $113,135  $60,358

Leslie Byrne  $228,010  $106,997  $118,594

Viola Baskerville  $202,150  $68,868  $64,679

Republicans

Sean Connaughton  $1,215,357  $637,259  $211,155

Bill Bolling  $1,182,083  $597,833  $157,914

ATTY. GENERAL
  Raised      Cash Balance  Raised 1Q05

Steve Baril (R)  $1,462,440  $647,507  $437,110

Bob McDonnell (R)  $1,393,403  $620,246  $223,256

Creigh Deeds (D)  $540,009  $319,189  $106,867

Quick conclusions:

1) Kaine's total, cash balance, and first quarter fundraising figures are all very impressive
2) Kilgore's got plenty of money too, of course, which means that we'll be seeing a lot of Kaine and him by November!
3) Russ Potts doesn't have a ton of money, but he may be able to run a respectable shoe-string campaign with the cash he's raising.
4)  Republicans Steve Baril and Bob BcDonnell have impressive cash balances in their race fot the Republican Attorney General nomination.  This should be interesting.
5)  The Lieutenant Governors' races look very competitive for both Republicans and Democrats, although Viola Baskerville does appear to be falling signficantly behind in terms of her cash balance and first quarter 2005 fundraising (especially compared to Chap Peterson and Leslie Byrne on the latter statistic). 

It's not all about money,  of course, it's about getting your supporters to turn out on election day. Still, these numbers are very interesting, in our opinion.

Lots more to come over the next few days, including analysis of the source of donations, local races, etc.

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