What immediately jumps out from these figures is the extremely low cash balance for Paul Bucher. Considering his campaign has already spent $180,000 to date (more than twice what he currently has in the bank) and 82% of the state still doesn't know who he is, the current campaign finance reports aren't good news for the Bucher camp.However, Zlotocha notes a silver lining for Bucher:
But the Bucher team can take comfort knowing that the Van Hollen figures, while strong in appearance, mask the fact that 3/4 of what the campaign has raised this year came from Van Hollen himself. When you subtract the $350,000 Van Hollen has given to his own campaign, his total raised this year ($116,000) is actually slightly below what Bucher has raised ($136,000).Bucher ended up raising more money from more contributors, a point the Van Hollen camp concedes. Now we'll see if those contributors open their wallets again.
By the way, a cautionary tale to any political campaign feeling a little superior in their checkbook. Check out Saturday's Waukesha Freeman and read about State Representative Ann Nischke's mayoral campaign.
