State’s Dems leading in race for donations
Central Valley Democratic Rep. Josh Harder has opened up a huge financial lead in his reelection race against Republican Ted Howze, whose financial support virtually disappeared after reports of bigoted antiBlack and antiMuslim posts on his social media accounts.
With about 100 days left until the Nov. 3 election, two other California Democrats who flipped GOPheld congressional seats in 2018 also have extensive leads in the campaign money race, financial reports released by the Federal Election Commission show. But the cash is flowing on both sides in the state’s four other closely fought contests.
While California’s political landscape is
littered with bigspending candidates who couldn’t translate their money into votes, a challenger’s minuscule campaign bankroll often shows that voters — and party leaders — already have made their decisions, said Mike Madrid, a veteran GOP consultant.
“You have to at least have table stakes to get into the game,” he said. “In some of these races, the candidates don’t have enough to play.”
For Howze, a former Turlock (Stanislaus County) councilman, the quarter ending June 30 was a disaster and not just financially. In May, two Politico stories pointed to erased posts from Howze’s Facebook account that attacked Muslims as not true Americans, slammed the Black Lives Matter movement and called former President Barack
Obama a traitor who should be arrested.
While Howze denied that he had written the posts, Republican leaders quickly backed away and apparently took his financial support with them.
In the most recent quarter, Howze raised $272,393, including $100,000 of his own money. Harder collected $1.1 million, leaving him with $4.3 million in the bank, compared with $254,294 for Howze.
Huge money gaps also show up in a pair of Orange County races. Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine raised $2.5 million in the second quarter, giving her a $6.7 million campaign bankroll, one of the largest in the nation. Republican Greg Raths, a Mission Viejo councilman, took in $230,170, with cashonhand of $334,919 on June 30.
A bit to the south, Democratic Rep. Mike Levin of San Juan Capistrano raised only slightly more for the quarter than Republican Brian Maryott, a councilman in the same city. But the $1.6 million Levin has in the bank overshadows the $212,820 his GOP challenger reported.
Elsewhere in the state, the numbers are big and more evenly matched.
Rep. TJ Cox of Fresno, facing a rematch of a 2018 race he won by just 862 votes, outraised former GOP Rep. David Valadao for the quarter and holds a cashonhand advantage of about $150,000, $1.96 million to $1.81 million.
In another Orange Countyarea contest, former GOP Assemblywoman Young Kim raised almost twice as much in the quarter as Democratic Rep. Gil Cisneros, who beat her in a tight race in 2018. Cisneros has a small advantage overall, with $1.66 million in the bank to $1.56 million for Kim.
Republican Michelle Steel, an Orange County supervisor, raised $1.1 million for the quarter in her race against Rep. Harley Rouda, but that included $500,000 she loaned to her campaign, bringing her loan total to $1.2 million. Rouda,
DLaguna Beach, took in $661,726, giving him $2.8 million in the bank. While Steel falls short of that total, the $2 million she has available guarantees a hardfought —and expensive — fall campaign.
Rep. Mike Garcia of Santa Clarita (Los Angeles County) is the only Republican in a targeted congressional race with more money than his Democratic opponent. Garcia won his seat in a May special election, replacing Democrat Katie Hill, who resigned last year. He has $738,392 in his campaign account to $402,852 for Democratic Assemblywoman Christy Smith, who lost to Garcia in a May special election and is running again for the full twoyear term.
Money can mean less than it seems, however.
In a news release earlier this month, Democrat Phil Arballo of Fresno touted his “massive fundraising haul” after he brought in nearly $830,000 for the quarter, which is a good number for political newcomer making his first run for public office.
But he’s running against GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of Tulare, who took in $4.5 million for the quarter, giving him $10.5 million in the bank to $449,126 for Arballo.
It’s a similar situation in San Francisco, where progressive Democrat Shahid Buttar is challenging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the left in a Democratsonly contest in November.
In a June release, Buttar noted that he had raised more than $1 million total for his campaign, which he called “a fundraising milestone.”
Problem is, Pelosi raised $6 million just in the second quarter, bringing her 2020 campaign fundraising total to $14.4 million, with $6.4 million still in the bank. Most of that money will be going to Democratic campaigns other than the one she is running against Buttar.
But the money numbers might not be as important as they once were, especially in California, said Madrid, the
GOP consultant.
“As the state and the country become more and more partisan, money means less and less,” said Madrid, who has angered fellow Republicans by becoming a cofounder of the Lincoln Project, a highprofile GOP group opposed to President Trump. “With fewer and fewer voters who haven’t already baked in their choices, who is the money going to influence?”
Don’t tell that to the candidates, who keep looking for money of their own and worry about the cash going to their opponents.
Harder, a Turlock Democrat, may have more than $4 million more in the bank than Howze, but that didn’t stop his campaign from sending out a frantic email earlier this month, warning that the Republican has put nearly $700,000 of his own money into his effort.
“It’s pretty unsettling to see a millionaire keep writing himself sixfigure checks, but now we must prepare for whatever his newly fortified campaign will throw at us,” the appeal read. “Will you chip in to our rapid response fund right now to fight back against Howze’s selffunding?”