Special interest group gives Parnell's U.S. House campaign a boost
Published Sunday, August 17, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!ANCHORAGE – Sean Parnell outraised his Republican challengers in the race for the U.S. House of Representatives in the latest reporting period, thanks to $130,000 in contributions bundled by the conservative special-interest group Club for Growth.
For the federal campaign finance reporting period running from July 1 to Aug. 6, Parnell raised $182,161.
Parnell, Alaska's lieutenant governor, has raised a total of $474,114 this election cycle with the majority of those funds, more than $330,000, coming from Club for Growth. Parnell has $66,254 on hand.
Incumbent Don Young raised $83,855 during the same time period for a total of nearly $1.1 million this cycle. He has $366,845 cash-on-hand.
Gabrielle LeDoux came in a distant third with just $7,174 in donations in the July-August reporting period. LeDoux says she expects to spend $350,000 of her own money on the primary. So far, she's contributed $251,525 to her campaign. LeDoux has $24,882 on hand.
Parnell is running a campaign based on lower taxes and cutting government spending, which has earned him the endorsement of Club for Growth. The third-party group is asking its members to donate to Parnell's campaign and is running television ads targeting Young's use of congressional earmarks to send money home to Alaska.
Parnell has ratcheted up his own attacks on Young as the Aug. 26 primary approaches. He put out a statement Friday painting Young as using fear to scare donors away from his challengers.
"It is never easy to stand up to an incumbent whose record is one of threats and intimidation," Parnell said in the statement. "While I stand up to fight for more responsible and taxpayer-friendly government, I’m pleased that so many Alaskans are joining our campaign, despite fear of retribution from Don Young."
The Young campaign responded Sunday, saying personal attacks had no place in the race.
"It's unfortunate that the lieutenant governor has chosen to resort to negative attacks on personalities instead of dealing with the issues," said Mike Anderson, Young's campaign spokesman. "Alaskans deserve better than that and that's why Don Young is running."
Such attacks could backfire in the closed Republican primary with GOP members who have long supported Young, but may now be sitting on the fence because of the federal corruption investigations, campaign watchers said.
The U.S. Justice Department and other federal agencies have been looking into political corruption in Alaska for the past four years. Young is under scrutiny for his campaign financing practices and ties to lobbyists. He has not been charged with a crime and denies any wrongdoing. Young has spent $1.2 million on legal expenses.
Parnell also responded to criticism that he's received the bulk of his campaign funding from the conservative third-party Club for Growth by pointing out that Young has also received Outside money.
Some 60 percent of Parnell's contributions have come from out of state. He's received $84,141 from 137 Alaskans this election cycle.
"The difference is that my contributors from outside are grassroots conservatives," Parnell said. "Don Young’s contributors from outside are lobbyists, special interests and people who conduct business before his committee. That’s exactly what breeds corruption, and why Don Young has spent over a million dollars on legal fees."
Young has received $297,096 from political action committees based Outside and in Alaska this cycle. Young has also received $15,300 from the PACs of lawmakers, mainly from Sen. Ted Stevens' Northern Lights PAC.
Seventy-five percent of Young's campaign donations originated in the Lower 48.
Young received $106,297 from 203 donors in Alaska compared with $84,550 he received from 63 contributors in Louisiana. His third-biggest group of contributors were fishing interests in Washington state.
Young has held small-donor events in Fairbanks and Palmer in the last couple of weeks that raised a combined $9,000, Anderson said.
The campaign has averaged $100,000 a month in past quarters and Anderson expects to hit that number again in the third quarter.
"We're going to have to raise a lot of money over September and October," Anderson said. "It's going to take a lot of work but I'm confident it's going to happen."
Recent polls show Young with a slight lead over Parnell in the race for the GOP nomination.
In the Democratic primary, Ethan Berkowitz, former state House minority leader, received $76,044 in campaign donations from July 1 to Aug. 6. He's raised a total of $705,000 this election cycle and has $95,659 on hand.
Nearly 70 percent of the donations to Berkowitz' campaign have come from contributors in Alaska.
Diane Benson, who is challenging Berkowitz for the Democratic nomination, brought in $19,177 from July 1 to Aug. 6. She's raised a total of $213,504 and has $37,933 in the bank.
Benson has raised 64 percent of her money from Alaskan contributors.
Contact Washington correspondent R.A. Dillon at dcnews@newsminer.com.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
Special Interest guess it should just be called lobbying groups. Wonder what we have to lose to what we'll gain?
How does Young's cash-on-hand total jibe with the amount he's spent on legal expenses? Past stories have talked about how much he's spent from his campaign fund for legal costs, and now he's got more money than Parnell all of a sudden? Must be a hell of a fundraiser, then.
Word out is Parnell and LeDoux will split the vote and Young will win the nomination. Why so upset about lobbying groups, just watch the national party conventions, they are paid for by them. Not to mention the private parties sponsored by them. Both parties have learned how to work the legal system on lobbying groups contributions.
I am the Treasurer for the Benson Campaign and I would like to correct an error in your story. A little over 70% of Diane Benson's money comes from Alaskans, not the 64% that you reported.
If you used just the FEC reports to do this calculation, it will be in error because all contributions that aggregate $200 or less are not itemized on the FEC reports so there is no way to tell, just from the reports, how much money really came from Alaskan's. Since over 52% of Diane's donors are small donors, many of them are not itemized in the FEC report: it just shows as one "Unitemized Total".
Detail statistics for Diane's funding sources are listed on her web site. Thank you.
AS Vita
Treasurer,
Benson for Congress
If Parnell doesn't hammer Don on his Tongass give-away plan, that doesn't seem to get any play in the tundra, then Parnell deserves to get thumped. Don is a piece of work...
Nice, DNM, real nice. What a subtle slant to the upcoming primary elections.
Compare the headline and body of this article to the article about Begich. In this article about Parnell, the headline uses the dreaded label of "special interest group" and the body of the article states where most of Parnell's contributions have come from.
In the article about Begich, who just happens to be your fair-haired boy, you use neutral words like "ramps up" and don't even bother to discuss who his "outside" contributors are. Of course you did see fit to mention where some of Steven's money came from.
It is curious to note that Begich has raised almost 4 times as much as Parnell in the same period (yes, I know they're not running against each other, so it is sort of an apples & oranges comparison), but you hammer Parnell for where his money comes from and soft peddle any news on Begich.
Shame on you, DNM. When you guys stop slanting your "news", your credibility will go up quite a bit.
Funny, with all the criticizim of Young by Parnell, young sean doesnt seem to be getting any money from Alaska. Sean is getting all his money from a single special interest group nobody knows about. Going down that road sells Alaskas interest off to some amorphus, nebulous lobbying group from back east. Vote Don, you know what your getting.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.