Who’s earning, who’s spending in Congressional race

The latest round of fundraising reports came out this week.

Below is a series of lists analyzing the data for candidates in the First Congressional District. The leading Senate candidates also released their totals Tuesday.

In the Second Congressional District, incumbent Mike Michaud (D) filed a report but challenger John Frary (R) did not. Michaud is included in the first list but none of the others. He does not have a primary, so the numbers are not comparable.

In the CD1 race, the Democratic candidates are: Chellie Pingree, Ethan Strimling, Adam Cote, Mark Lawrence, Michael Brennan and Steven Meister. The Republican candidates are Dean Scontras and Charlie Summers.

In the lists below, Republican candidates are in bold.

Check PolitickerME.com in the coming days for more on where the money is coming from and going.

TOTAL RAISED

Chellie Pingree remains far in front of her competitors in terms of fundraising, with Ethan Strimling in a distant second.

Adam Cote has moved up from ranking fourth to ranking third on the list, bumping Mark Lawrence into fourth place. Cote came within $4,000 of out-fundraising Strimling.

Contributions received this cycle and year-to-date:

1. Chellie Pingree: $337,654 in the first quarter, $1.1 million to date.
2. Ethan Strimling: $163,674 in the first quarter, $500,700 to date.
3. Adam Cote: $159,997 in the first quarter, $461,310 to date.
4. Mike Michaud (CD2): $120,157 in the first quarter, $467,222 to date.
5. Mark Lawrence: $89,404 in the first quarter, $415,619 to date.
6. Dean Scontras: $76,897 in the first quarter, $232,425 to date.
7. Charlie Summers: $69,016 in the first quarter, $182,698 to date.
8. Michael Brennan: $59,102 in the first quarter, $210,489 to date.
9. Steven Meister: $19,991 in the first quarter, $60,442 to date.

TOTAL SPENT

Next, let’s look at where the money went. The top three are the same as the list above, but below that we see some shifts. Summers spent the least amount of money.

There are several differences in expenditures between this quarter and to-date totals, so we’ll look at those in two different lists.

The first quarter:

1. Pingree: $208,659
2. Strimling: $140,177
3. Cote: $74,560
4. Lawrence: $63,131
5. Meister: $53,413
6. Scontras: $51,495
7. Brennan: $50,925
8. Summers: $30,302

To date:

1. Pingree: $544,417
2. Strimling: $281,084
3. Scontras: $209,540
4. Lawrence: $199,893
5. Cote: $180,381
6. Brennan: $120,996
7. Summers: $76,161
8. Meister: $65,922

CASH ON HAND

The next factor we’ll look at is cash on hand. With eight weeks until the primaries, how much money do the candidates have to play with? For Democrats, Pingree remains in the lead, but Cote slipped ahead of Strimling for second place.

For Republicans, while Scontras received slightly more than Summers this quarter, the Summers campaign has twice as much cash on hand than the Scontras campaign.

Cash on hand:

1. Pingree: $569,958
2. Cote: $277,697
3. Strimling: $219,545
4. Lawrence: $216,545
5. Summers: $106,240
6. Brennan: $90,515
7. Scontras: $50,184
8. Meister: $5,605

CONTRIBUTIONS OF $249 OR LESS

Next we’ll look at unitemized contributions. Campaigns are only required to give details of contributions of $250 or more. The rest get thrown into one lump sum – the unitemized total.

Percent of contributions this quarter that were less than $250:

1. Brennan: 31 percent, or $18,555
2. Lawrence: 22 percent, or $19,690
3. Scontras: 20 percent, or $15,621
4. Summers: 20 percent, or $13,601
5. Pingree: 15 percent, or $50,035
6. Meister: 14 percent, or $2,946
7. Strimling: 13 percent, or $21,222
8. Cote: 8 percent, or $13,009

PAC MONEY

The FEC also requires candidates to differentiate between individual contributions and funds from political organizations or committees. As follows is the ranking of funding that came from PACs:

1. Cote: $13,500 this quarter, $19,500 to date
2. Pingree: $9,500 this quarter, $26,800 to date
3. Scontras: $1,500 this quarter, $2,500 to date
4. Summers: $1,000 this quarter, $2,000 to date
5. Strimling: $0 this quarter, $1,750 to date
6. Brennan: $0 this quarter, $1,000 to date

Lawrence and Meister have not received any PAC money.

ONLINE FUNDRAISING

Lastly, we’ll look at money raised through ActBlue, the popular online fundraising tool for Democrats. It is a popular source for small contributions.

There have been several attempts to duplicate ActBlue on the Republican side, but they have not gained the same popularity. It is worth noting, however, that Scontras ranks second in amount raised on SlateCard.com. There he raised $26,449 through 199 donors. The Summers campaign has raised $645 through the same site.

ActBlue contributions:

1. Pingree: $351,260 through 1,003 supporters
2. Strimling: $177,073 through 609 supporters
3. Lawrence: $57,218 through 235 supporters
4. Brennan: $46,408 through 342 supporters
5. Meister: $15,110 through 53 supporters
6. Cote: $4,594 through 115 supporters

THE SPIN ROOM

No fundraising cycle is complete without the press release, with each campaign spinning the numbers so they look the most successful. Then there’s a quote from the candidate, thanking the donors and stressing the importance of their candidacy.

As evident from the above rankings, there are lots of ways to spin the numbers.

The following comments showed up in PolitickerME’s inbox Tuesday.

For the Pingree campaign, there wasn’t much to spin. The campaign sent out a release featuring interviews with donors, touting it as Pingree’s biggest fundraising quarter.

“I’m honored and grateful for the support of people from all over the First District, from all over Maine and from all over the country,” Pingree said in the release. “2008 is the most important election of our lifetime, and it’s clear from the level of enthusiasm out there it’s also going to be one of the most exciting. From fixing the economy to ending the war in Iraq to universal health care, people want to see big changes.”

The Brennan campaign also said this was the best fundraising quarter yet, stressing the amount of money raised in-state.

"I am deeply grateful to the donors who have given more than 1,400 donations to this campaign, including 450 over the last three months," Brennan said in a release. "Our supporters are committed to making this campaign succeed."

The release from the Cote campaign has the headline: “Cote in number two spot eight weeks before June 10 primary; Pingree has raised over $1 million, but leads Cote by only $126,000.”

In cash on hand, that is.

"People want to see Congress get something done, not more politics," said Cote in the release. "I've been saying since I announced last May, if you think its time we stopped talking about our problems and worked together to make progress – I'd like your support. That message is resonating with Mainers. We're within a short distance of the front-runner who ran statewide before. I'm confident we're in a position to win this primary."

The Scontras campaign stressed the amount of support they got from in state, along with their fundraising success on Slatecard.

"I'm humbled by the support my candidacy continues to receive from Mainers who are tired of politics as usual in Washington," Scontras said in a release. "The last thing we need is to send another career politician, someone looking to get a job and not to do a job, to Washington to become part of the problem. It will take bold new leadership to secure our borders, keep our federal tax burden low and defend the traditional conservative values that have kept America strong, and I am eager to serve as an agent of reform in a broken Washington," concluded Scontras.

The release from the Lawrence campaign was simple. They’re pleased with their fundraising success, and they’re exactly where they want to be.

They touted the number of donors – 1,400.

“I am very pleased with the grassroots support my campaign has received across the district,” Lawrence said in the release.