Wednesday, July 16, 2008

AG Edge: Brownlee

Having not seen the actual reports and just looking at the total fundraising numbers, I felt like John Brownlee held his own in the AG race with Ken Cuccinelli. But now that I've looked at the reports this morning, I think it's safe to say Brownlee blew Cuccinelli out of the water. If you take out the $40,000 transfer from Cuccinelli's Senate campaign account, he raised around $90,000 in 12 weeks. Brownlee raised $103,000 in 6 weeks. That's more money in half the time.

And keep in mind that Cuccinelli may be a State Senator from Northern Virginia, but he's spent the past few years building a statewide network of supporters and donors. Brownlee, as a US Attorney, was essentially prohibited from participating in the political process, meaning he is really starting from scratch. Seen in that light, this report has to be thrilling for Brownlee and disappointing for Cuccinelli. So much for Ken being able to knock Brownlee out early.

Check out the numbers:

http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/Campaign_Finance_Disclosure/View_Disclosure_Reports/Index.html

More from Roanoke Valley Republicans:

http://roanokevalleyrepublicans.blogspot.com/2008/07/brownlee-wins-initial-fundraising.html

2 comments:

D.J. McGuire said...

I'm not surprised. The GOP establishment can't stand Cuccinelli for backing Marshall. Brownlee is just the beneficiary (nothing against him personally) of the establishment's revenge.

Salem Republican said...

D.J.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. When you look at the actual donors there's no "establishment" v. "non-establishment" trend in the donations.

The truth is, these numbers are less about who is supporting Brownlee and more about who is not supporting Cuccinelli. He is a sitting Senator with good name recognition who has unofficially be running for a couple years and officially running hard for several months. Not breaking $100k under that scenario is VERY bad.

A covention is so pro-Cuccinelli that he's likely to win but comparing his numbers to Shannon's numbers gives me great concern about his ability to win. I know you've now officially endorsed Cuccinelli but I'm hoping people keep an open mind (which I'm still doing) to wait and see which one will be the better choice. There's a long time until the 2009 convention.

Greg