Today, Ohio campaigns had to submit their campaign finance reports to the Ohio Secretary of State.
By every indication, Kasich absolutely demolished Strickland.
Kasich outraised Strickland by over $200,000.
But that’s not the whole story. It very well should have been a total blowout.
Why? Because more than 1/3 of Strickland’s haul came from gifts from his own Party organizations. That includes $704,000 in gifts from the Ohio Democratic Party and $55k from other committee organizations.
How much did Kasich get from State and County GOP? Well, I gave up looking after finding $5k from the Cuyahoga County GOP and $1,316 from the Franklin County GOP way down deep in the report.
In other words, the Ohio Democratic Party is keeping Strickland’s campaign afloat.
Then there are the special interests – PACs and Big Labor.
Together, they gave Strickland $357,300. By comparison, Kasich took $52,739 from PACs.
Who again is beholden to special interests? That’s what I thought.
All told, $1,116,300, or well over half of Ted Strickland’s haul, did not come from individual contributions.
But to me, the real story is the enthusiasm behind each campaign as reflected in the quantity and the size of contributions.
Ted Strickland received a grand total of 2,692 contributions (63 of which came from the ODP).
John Kasich had more than double that at 5,890.
You’ll also remember after the last report was released in June that Strickland’s spokeswoman called low-dollar contributors “bad investments”.
I guess we should expect the same namecalling after learning about Kasich’s 2,376 contributions of $25 or less versus Strickland’s 716.
To me, that speaks volumes about the enthusiasm of the average voter behind each campaign.
Overall, the cash-on-hand gap remains the same as the last report thanks to rules stating that no expenditures need reported until October.
Other interesting tidbits from Strickland’s report? He received 11,395 from RJ Reynolds, better known for their cigarettes.
He also scored $2,500 from Planned Parenthood.
And remember Terry Coyne? Well, he donated another $10,000.
Ultimately, fundraising helps communicate the standing of a campaign.
Just how Lee Fisher’s poor fundraising predicted his current troubles, Strickland’s reliance on help from the Party and special interests indicate the frustration voters feel for the incumbent.
Kasich’s fundraising superiority indicates the wind is at his back. After all, it’s pretty damn hard to convince contributors to donate to a cause they don’t believe will win.
Ultimately, if you’re a Kasich fan, you couldn’t be much happier with this report.
