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Out-of-State Cash Dominates US Senate Race
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By Stephen Abbott
New Hampshire Herald
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Bill Binnie Kelly Ayotte Ovide Lamontagne
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Know Where Their Money is Coming From
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There’s no question who the best funded candidate is in the Republican primary
race for U.S. Senate: the largely self-funded Bill Binnie. In his Aug. 25 campaign
finance report filed with the NH Secretary of State’s office Binnie reported
amassing a campaign war chest of $4,789,626, with $3,587,594 of that amount -
nearly three-quarters of all cash raised - coming from Binnie himself.
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Nearly $1.2 million has come from individual donors. His campaign has thus far
spent over $3.6 million, which leaves $1.1 million to wage what is expected to
be a ferocious media campaign in the final weeks before the Sept. 14 primary.
Binnie’s closest rival in the money race is Former Attorney General, Kelly
Ayotte, who reported raising $2,636,713, with just over $2 million of that coming
from individual contributions. Ayotte has spent just more than $1.4 million,
leaving her with $1.2 million to spend in these final weeks of the campaign, and
well equipped to wage a media battle.
Ayotte is winning the race for Political Action Committee cash, with over
$469,000 coming from PACs. Ovide Lamontagne has raised just $5,000 from
PACs, while Binnie has gotten just $2,000.
Jim Bender has raised no money from PACs, but has donated $1,549,050 of
his own cash towards his $1,744,978 campaign fundraising total. Of that, he
reported spending just $469,441, leaving him with nearly $1.3 million to spend
in the run-up to the primary.
Lamontagne has put in just $14,449 of his own money towards a fundraising
total of $450,551 through August 25. Donors pitched in $431,006.
Meanwhile, Congressman Paul Hodes, who has no primary rivals, has
$1,731,992 in the bank to take on the winner of the GOP primary, having
raised $3,595,038. PACs have been the major contributors to Hodes’
campaign, donating $705,984, with $2,745,149 coming from individual donors.
The Democratic Party has given Hodes $42,600, with over $100,000 coming
from other sources.
Following the donor cash
Except for Lamontagne, all US Senate candidates are raising more money out
of state than from donors in New Hampshire - in some cases a lot more. And
only one in four of Binnie’s financial donors live in New Hampshire.
Of the $1.2 million Bill Binnie has raised from individual donors, only $285,667,
or 25 percent, was raised in-state, with the remaining $850,052 coming from
out-of-state donors.
Binnie received $151,114 in campaign cash from 135 Massachusetts residents,
and received a further $86,175 in financial support from fifty Californians, who
represented more than a quarter of his total donor base.
Just forty of Jim Bender’s donors live in the state, donating a total of $31,650 to
his campaign - 20 percent of the total raised. Of his 189 donors, 98 live in
Massachusetts, where he has been actively fundraising for over a year.
Bender’s out-of-state donors gave $127,850, with over half, $69,500, coming
from Massachusetts voters.
Ayotte has raised 41 percent of her funds, $790,237, from New Hampshire
voters. Out-of-state donors have given her $1,162,932, nearly two-thirds of her
campaign funding. However, 831 of her 1,549 donors, more than half, reside in
New Hampshire.
One out of three of her 333 out-of-state donors reside in Washington, DC, but
donated only $60,700 to her campaign, three percent of what she’s raised. An
additional 134 are from Virginia, and these donors are largely composed of
government-related lobbying firms and organizations. She obtained $73,700
from them.
By contrast, Binnie, who’s running as an “outsider candidate” had no donors
from DC, and only one from Virginia. Bender had two donors from Washington,
DC and one from Virginia.
Alone among US Senate candidates, Lamontange raised 80 percent of his
campaign cash, $270,187, in-state.
As for Democrat Paul Hodes, sixty percent of his funding, $850,052, has come
from out of the state, with $285,667 coming from New Hampshire donors,
according to FEC reports. Just under half of Hodes’ 4,544 donor pool are from
New Hampshire, with 514 from New York state and New York City and 346 from
DC or Virginia.
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