VPAP has posted first quarter money numbers for Virginia House of Delegates and State Senate candidates. Here are some interesting results:*In the House of Delegates races, 7 of the top 10 in terms of "most money raised in the first quarter" are Democrats. That includes RK endorsee Henry Light (79th), in third place at $114,025. Also impressive among Democratic non-incumbents are Carlos del Toro (88th) in fourth place at $94,797, Rip Sullivan (34th) in fifth place at $81,136, and Troy Farlow in tenth place at $70,024.
*In House of Delegates Democratic primaries, Rip Sullivan ($81,136) outraised his opponent Margi Vanderhye ($37,700) by more than a 2:1 margin. Rex Simmons ($36,136) outraised Morris Meyer ($22,361) significantly in the 40th district. Henry Light ($114,025) blew Del. Johnny "Roadblock" Joannou ($29,679) out of the water, by a nearly 4:1 margin. And Bruce Roemmelt ($8,444) raised nearly as much as Del. Bob Marshall ($10,562) in the 13th, although these are tiny amounts of money, barely enough to buy a decent used car or remodel the bathroom. It shows you how little money we're talking about in some of these House races, and how much of a difference your contribution could make.
*In the State Senate races, Chap Petersen (34th) led the way with $195,603 raised. Congratulations to Chap! Also doing very well were Ralph Northam (6th) with $148,335 raised, and Janet Oleszek (37th) with $137,187. Finally, Albert Pollard (28th) raised $30,936, far more than the leading Republican candidate, John Van Hoy, who raised $20,167.
*In a key Democratic primary for Senate, Greg Galligan (39th) outraised George Barker by more than a 2.5:1 margin ($54,654 to $21,967). That's impressive. Whichever one of these candidates wins will take on Sen. Jay O'Brien, who raised $28,254 in the first quarter.
*In terms of "cash on hand," 16 candidates had more than $100,000, including 13 incumbents. Del. Brian Moran (46th) led the way with $311,685, followed by Bill Howell (28th) on the Republican side with $235,110.
*On the Senate side, the "cash on hand" leader was Jeannemarie Devolites Davis (34th), with $506,402. We'll see how far that takes her in this increasingly Democratic district against the super-strong Chap Petersen. Of the top 10 on this list, 7 are Republicans, 2 are Democrats, and 1 is Benedict Lambert, who claims to be a Democrat but who endorsed and campaigned for George "Bush" Allen last year, thus forfeiting any right to the "D" label.
There's lots more from VPAP, including who the top donors were. Check it out if you've got nothing better to do this weekend! Ha. :)
"On January 1, 2007, Connie Brennan had raised $0 for her campaign. Watkins Abbitt had $25,445.76 in the bank.
Connie began raising some money in January, and did not announce her campaign until March 12. During the first quarter, Connie raised $58,980.02, and loaned her campaign $100 (probably just enough to open the account). Her family contributed $20,000, and she received in-kind contributions of $6,000. She had actual money donations of over $100 from 55 donors, for a total of $47,603.50. (Taking out the family contributions, that is 53 donors totaling $27,603.50.) She had contributions of $100 or less from 100 people, totaling $5,376.52. She ended the quarter with cash on hand of $39,966.17.
Watkins Abbitt, on the other hand, started with $25,445.76. He received 13 contributions of cash, totaling $7,700. They were virtually all from PAC's or lobbyists -- the American Insurance Association, the Virginia Automobile and Truck Dealers PAC, Sprint, Embarq, various Richmond law firms. There were no contributions of under $200, except for an unidentified in-kind contribution of $55. His major financial event came when he loaned his own campaign $50,000 right at the end of the period. He ended the quarter with $77,934.50 in the bank -- about double Connie's total. But that's because he loaned himself that $50,000 on March 26. My guess is that he heard that Connie was raising good money, and he knew that it would look really bad if she had more money in the bank than he did.
Eaves dropping on a conversation it was said that Watkins hired the past Republican Party chair of Nelson County to work on Nelson County records to dig up what ever can be found about Connie's voting record, etc. Someone else confirmed the statement.
What made this interesting was the writings on this blog defending Watkins and his caucusing with Republican's. This man and his voting record is defended so much that a large group of voters in the 59th still believe that Watkins is a Democrat.
Praying that Connie raises enough money to get the true record of Watkins out in the open.