The first hints at 2Q fundraising numbers are dripping out for the three declared Republican candidates for Senate, and it looks like a four-way primary with no real favorite may be in the offing:
Longtime Republican fundraiser Tom Foley has burst onto the political scene by raising more than $530,000 in the first 26 days since announcing he is running for the U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Christopher Dodd....
Former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, 66, widely viewed by insiders and in the polls as the Republican frontrunner in the race, has been raising money for the entire quarter and said he had topped Foley's amount.
"We did a little better than that,'' Simmons told Capitol Watch....
State Sen. Sam Caligiuri, 42, who represents Waterbury and surrounding towns, said he worked in approximately the same timeframe as Foley because he was tied up with the hectic ending of the regular legislative session at the state Capitol in Hartford.
"We raised about $125,000 during the same period,'' Caligiuri said Tuesday.
So, to recap the financial state of the Republican primary race, without having the actual FEC reports to look at yet:
- Rob Simmons, the biggest name in the race and the establishment GOP choice, barely beat the field by raising "a little" better than Foley's $530k despite having three full months to engage in full-time fundraising.
- Tom Foley, Greenwich millionaire and Bush Pioneer, raised over $530k in only 26 days, largely, one expects, by shaking the Bush money tree. (And, while self-funding is also an option for him, he reportedly did not do so at all this past quarter.)
- Sam Caligiuri, the right-wing conservative option in the race who may come to the starting gate with the highest level of support among the all-important base, raised about $125k, despite being involved in a protracted legislative session.
- Peter Schiff, who still sounds very much like he intends to run in a Republican primary for Senate, might very well be able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars online in just a few days after officially announcing. And he likely has the resources to self-fund as well.
Meanwhile, Senator Dodd, accused by both lobbyists and Republicans of overextending himself not in his campaign but in his Senate committee work on Banking and Health Care, finds himself trying to keep up with the above declared Republicans who are all currently full-time fundraisers.
All in all, it sounds like a competitive four-way Republican primary might actually actually happen next year. (And if it does, Simmons, Foley, and Caligiuri will likely need to raise even more money than originally planned.)
Sam Caligiuri, in fact, seems to have already fired the first shot of the primary, and it's a very interesting one coming at the start of one of the first meaningful Republican primary races in the nation in the post-Bush era. Today, Republican State Senator Sam Caligiuri attempted to hit former Republican Ambassador Tom Foley by tying him to... former Republican President George W. Bush:
"We didn't start meaningful fundraising until after the session ended on June 3. That's a very good number [for Foley], but not a surprising number for a Greenwich millionaire who was a top fundraiser for George W. Bush. That's how he got to be Ambassador to Ireland.'' |
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