By Adam Pagnucco.
Yesterday, I wrote about fundraising by the delegation. Today, let’s look at how the county elected officials did last year. The table below shows beginning and ending cash balances along with total raised and total spent. It also shows burn rate, which is the percentage of receipts that are spent. Burn rate has to be kept low early, because if it’s not, bad things could happen.
In looking at these results, it’s important to identify which campaign finance system is being used by the candidates. Traditional financing is what the state legislators use. Folks in that system should raise money continuously, build a big war chest and then spend it all in the last few months of the primary cycle.
Public financing is different. Candidates in that system get two-thirds to three-quarters of their money from public matching funds, but they are not available until a year away from the primary at the earliest. So publicly financed candidates have little incentive to raise money now. As you can tell from the above table, none of them – at least in this county – are.
So there is no news from the public candidates, several of whom (especially Evan Glass) raise lots of money in that system. It’s simply too early for them. Instead, the traditional candidates warrant comment.
Council Member Will Jawando (At-Large) spent most of the year raising money for his U.S. Senate race and did little work for his state account. That said, if you are a Jawando supporter, I would not be too worried. Jawando has historically been a strong fundraiser no matter what system he uses and his U.S. Senate race significantly expanded his donor pool. No matter what higher office he seeks – and Jawando is always seeking one – he will be ready to raise money when the time comes.
Council Member Sidney Katz (D-3) is term limited and, at age 73, may have run his last campaign. Potential contenders are already eyeing his soon-to-be vacant seat.
Council Member Dawn Luedtke (D-7) did not raise a lot and got nearly half her money from a $6,000 contribution by the campaign account of her husband, former Delegate Eric Luedtke. Should she and her supporters be worried? Not necessarily. She only did one event, she has two and a half more years to raise money and her district does not have a big bench. Also – and you are going to get tired of me making this point – a Democratic district council member running for reelection has not been defeated in this county since 1998. (That’s when former at-large candidate and doorknocking hall of famer Phil Andrews defeated District 3 incumbent Bill Hanna.)
Council Member Andrew Friedson (D-1) is the big story, and really the only story, among the county’s elected officials. His year one net was staggering and it was only surpassed by District 18 Senator Jeff Waldstreicher. He benefited from not having any opponent, primary or general, in the 2022 election, and that has helped him build his overflowing war chest.
As with Waldstreicher, I am going to write a separate post on Friedson’s fundraising soon. One thing they have in common is how much better each did than their colleagues. Let’s climb inside their fundraising machines next!