Follow-Up on IN 9 Fundraising

The folks at Frugal Hoosiers are more inclined than I am to put lipstick on pigs (pardon the metaphor), but there are some objective points to be made about their post about 9th District fundraising (and it's worthwhile being objective when looking at fundraising, even if you're a normally partisan blog).

Young posted about $90,000 cash-on-hand. He raised almost $75,000 compared to Hill who raised just over $100,000. Of Hill’s total, $40,000 came from Barack Obama’s Keeping Indiana Blue fundraiser.

First of all, Baron raised almost $259,000, not $100,000. Sure, there's PAC money in that quarter-million plus number.

As much as it's politically expedient to point and shout when the other guy has PAC money and someone else doesn't (the only logical reason for Frugal Hoosiers to omit mention of the actual total number, unless they just want to lie, which I doubt), PAC money is still money. It spends just the same as money from everyone else, particularly when it's used to buy the negative ads Baron loves so much.

But as an objective judgment, Baron Hill raised almost $259,000. The $100,000 number is disingenuous, misleading, and clearly wrong.

That’s pretty strong for Young. During the same period in the year before he beat Hill, Mike Sodrel had a couple thousand dollars on hand.

I wish I could say that was a good result; it just isn't. And in Q2 of 2003, Mike Sodrel had not even taken steps to run again and was not actively fundraising (as Young has been).

And while Frugal Hoosiers likes to snidely observe how nice it is to not have someone named Sodrel running in the 9th (the only Republican to ever hold the seat and someone who has probably expended more time, money, and treasure advancing the Republican Party and conservatism in the 9th district than anybody), when comparing fundraising for the 9th involving Sodrel it's worth noting that he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money in 2002 and 2004. Todd Young--"a young guy, so to speak"--isn't going to have that luxury. Father-in-law Tucker is bound by the same FEC contribution limits as everyone else (and he's already maxed out).

I didn't always agree with how Sodrel's campaigns were run, but he had money and he ran ads. This level of fundraising simply isn't going to get Todd Young into a comparable position. I'd love to be wrong, but to think that it would is deluding and fooling ourselves.

It wasn’t until November of that year that Sodrel had close to what Young has today. It’s worth remembering that Young isn’t self-funding either, he’s out raising money in small donations.

Once he decided to run in 2004, Sodrel raised money rapidly. The first quarter after that decision was made (Q3 2003) saw him get $80,348.50. By the quarter after that (Q4 2003), he raised $100,987.54. This is, objectively, Todd's second quarter at fundraising. By Sodrel's second quarter of active fundraising in 2004, he already had raised $172,759.62.

And, I need not remind anyone, television and campaigns were considerably less expensive affairs even a few years ago than they are now. Sodrel's numbers in 2003, for example, were considered very good at that time. They're not impressive in today's light, but they're still more than what Todd Young raised.

Young is easily outperforming historic fundraising for a Republican in that district.

Let's just compare for a moment some of the Sodrel statistics with the Todd Young statistics, to look at this objectively in terms of "historic fundraising" in the 9th.

We'll take the Q1 and Q2 results for Todd Young for 2009 and compare them to the first two quarters Sodrel was running in the 2004 and 2008 cycles (omitting Sodrel's incumbent results from 2006). I'd go back further, but those results aren't available on the FEC website.

Best results at the top, worst results at the bottom in each category.

Net Receipts (Contributions):
Mike Sodrel Q1 2008: $262,601.75
Mike Sodrel Q4 2007: $178,442.21
Mike Sodrel Q4 2003: $100,987.54
Mike Sodrel Q3 2003: $80,348.50
Todd Young Q2 2009: $73,945.60
Todd Young Q1 2009: $16,392.00

Ending Cash-on-Hand:
Mike Sodrel Q1 2008: $308,643.18
Mike Sodrel Q4 2007: $165,392.61
Mike Sodrel Q4 2003: $141,140.48
Todd Young Q2 2009: $88,992.17
Mike Sodrel Q3 2003: $71,772.08
Todd Young Q1 2009: $16,392.00

Sort of speaks for itself, doesn't it?

While Baron Hill decides which of your taxes he’ll vote to raise next, Young is collecting cash and endorsements and building a winning organization to compete and win next year.

And it is precisely because of what the lack of a viable challenger in the 9th District enables Baron to do--get away with that liberal voting record--that makes this lackluster performance so significant and so disappointing.

When viably challenged, Baron Hill votes differently than when he does not believe his reelection chances are threatened. In that respect, he is no different from any career politician (Evan Bayh is another Hoosier example of this).

Baron Hill is certainly not behaving like he is going to face a viable challenger. I hope he gets one or one grows out of the current field, because he's not facing one right now.