I was stunned when I first read the campaign fundraising totals for this period reported by John Doolittle (h/t to Hank Shaw over at the Stockton Record).
I live far away from the 4th CD, in Orange County, but I know the kind of momentum you need to have going on to gear up to win a "battleground" U.S. House seat. It takes a staggering amount of money — and Doolittle’s anemic totals this year make Doolittle’s first and most important hurdle that much harder… According to published reports, Doolittle raised just over $50,000 to Democrat Charlie Brown’s impressive $212,000.
Looking at the fundraising numbers from neighboring CD 11, another "battleground" seat, the incumbent Congressman, Democrat Jerry McNerney, raised $234K in the third quarter and reported $757K cash on hand. A little different picture than that of the incumbent in CD 4. For those interested, Dean Andal, McNerney’s probably GOP opponent, raised $101,000 this period with a cash on hand of $351,118.
John Doolittle needs to be able to make a credible case that he has a really, really strong shot at cleaning the clock of Democrat Charlie Brown (in this heavily GOP seat, mind you). It is Doolittle’s vulnerability to a general election defeat that fuels the fire of strong primary opposition. After all, if Doolittle cannot demonstrate a clear path to a victory next November, then opponents aren’t running "against" Doolittle, but rather to keep the seat in GOP hands.
As I have said before, John Doolittle is not running for the GOP nomination in court of law, rather the court of public opinion. So far the ladies and gentlemen of that jury are scratching their heads.
I want to close by making it very clear — I like John Doolittle. I have known him for a very long time, and know him to be a good man. That said, no one "owns" a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. You have to earn it every time. Who amongst us hasn’t seen Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington? Every American who aspires to walk under the dome of the United States Capitol as a U.S. Representative has their chance to run every couple of years. If there happens to be an incumbent in the seat, that incumbent has the burden to make the case on why they should be re-nominated, or re-elected, as opposed to one of the other candidates.
The bad news and the good news for John Doolittle is that it takes a lot of money to take your message to a district that large. The bad news is that he doesn’t have much (money) in his campaign treasury. The good news for Doolittle — no one else has much either.
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