Some musing on the final House and Senate campaign finance reports, which were filed with the Federal Election Commission last week.
Consider this. The year-end FEC filings show that Democratic Congressman Peter Welch ended his campaign with $328,351 in cash on hand. That's a nice chunk of change to build on for his re-election run in 2008. It's also a new post-election record for a rookie member of Vermont's Congressional delegation.
According to the ever-useful folks at Political Moneyline, Bernie Sanders had only $3,216 in his campaign account balance after winning his first race for Congress in 1990. Heck, Sanders didn't amass the kind of post-election cash-on-hand money Welch has right now until after Bernie had won his fourth re-election race in 1998.
Still need to be impressed? Political Moneyline records indicate Welch is more flush with post-election cash than Jim Jeffords was when he won his initial Senate race in 1988, and that was AFTER Jeffords had been in Congress for 14 years. Even Leahy didn't have this kind of post-election stash until after his 2004 non-contest with Republican Jack McMullen, 20 years after Pat's arrival in Washington.
Other do-dads from the FEC files. It appears Republican Martha Rainville had to pass the hat among her friends in December in order to collect $3,407 in additional funds after her November loss to Welch in order to stay in the black with her final report-- barely. She also got a $1,000 donation post-election donation from what looks a political action committee fr state Rep. Rick Hube, R-Londonderry. Bottom line: Rainville has just $162.71 left in her account. Makes you wonder if she wants in on a 2008 rematch with Welch.
Over in the Senate, Sanders ended up with $177,466 in his account after the most expensive Senate race in Vermont history. Sanders went into the 2006 election cycle with $612,195 in cash on hand. You can bet he'll be replenishing that account bigtime between now and 2012.
And what of Rich Tarrant, the multi-millionaire IDX co-founder who had already spent a jaw-dropping $6,925,000 of his own money in his 33-percentage loss to Sanders. Turns out he had to drop another $25,000 into his account on Dec. 21 in order to pay some final campaign-related bills. He has $15,459 in cash on hand left in his federal account, but who's counting.
You can go to fec.com to check the latest FEC reports out for yourself, but I suggest you click
HERE, which will take you to Political Moneyline. It has the figures and easier access to past campaigns, plus some interesting breakdowns on contributors and expenses.
-- Sam Hemingway
