Thursday, February 04, 2010

The Money Race in District 20

Campaign finance reports have been filed recently in Michigan. They provide some interesting information on the state of the 20th district state senate race.

Campaign finances reported: Schuitmaker, Totten lead in fundraising in 20th District race

On the Republican side, Rep. Tonya Schuitmaker led with $148,000, of which $100,000 is her own money. Lorence Wenke trailed with $57,000, including $50,000 of his own money. Rep. Larry DeShazor, who only recently entered the race, did not report any money raised yet.

While Schuitmaker's totals are good for her, she will still have trouble overcoming her geographic disadvantage. Wenke is wealthy enough to finance a large part of his campaign himself. It remains to be seen whether DeShazor will be able to raise enough money to run a strong campaign.

On the democrat side, Rep. Robert Jones raised only $14,400. Meanwhile, county commissioner John Taylor raised $112,000 including a $100,000 loan. And lawyer Mark Totten, who recently moved to the area, raised $134,000, mostly from out of state.

Is Robert Jones in trouble? Maybe. Jones has always been surprisingly popular (he was the top vote-getter the first time he ran for city commission). He seems to have phoned it in his last few times running for office, still winning overwhelmingly. Was he planning to coast to the democrat nomination? How will he handle a tough race in a larger jurisdiction?

This blog still expects Jones to win the nomination by a large margin, but it will be interesting to see a real primary on the democrat side.

No comments: