<$BlogRSDUrl$>

My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2007-07-16

Why Are Two of the Big Three Keeping Their Powder Dry? 

The Rocky ran an interesting article about Colorado donations to Presidential campaigns to this point in the cycle. Not surprisingly, Barack Obama is outpacing everybody at this point.

Colorado's financial love affair with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama continued into the second quarter as the senator from Illinois collected $364,000 from donors in the state.

On the Republican presidential side, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain came away with the most campaign cash from Colorado.

Obama has now raised almost $1 million in Colorado since the first of the year. That's by far the most money raised in the state by any of the candidates from either major political party.
His take from the second quarter was more than double the $121,373 that Sen. Hillary Clinton collected from Coloradans or the $133,405 received by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Guiliani's and McCain's financial support in Colorado is on the rise at a time when most Republican candidates saw donations from the state drop.

With the support of former Colorado gubernatorial candidate Marc Holtzman and broadcaster and former Denver Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe, Giuliani raised $176,810. That is up from the $108,000 Giuliani raised in the first quarter of this year.

McCain raised about the same, $176,108, more than double what he raised in the first quarter.

But, of more interest to me is this little nugget buried deep within the article: the list of Democratic donors.

Obama collected 756 donations in Colorado between April and June. They included $1,000 from attorney Jean Dubofsky, $4,600 each from East West Partners executive Harry Frampton and his wife, and $250 from Progressive Now official Michael Huttner.

Major donors to Clinton included former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, $1,300; the campaign committee of former Denver congresswoman Pat Schroeder, $1,000; and former U.S. Senate candidate Tom Strickland, $2,300.

Richardson said he received $133,405 from Coloradans during the second quarter. Prominent donors include Polly Baca, executive director of the Latin American Research and Services Agency, $250; businessman Tim Marquez and his wife, $4,600; Fort Collins heiress Pat Stryker, $2,300; and former Denver City Attorney Cole Finnegan, $1,000.

Other Democratic candidates split the support of the political establishment in Colorado. Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd got donations from nine members of the Denver law firm Brownstein, Hyatt and Farber, while Delaware Sen. Joe Biden got donations from Celestial Seasonings founder Moe Siegel and Strickland. Attorney Norm Brownstein gave to both Dodd and Biden.

Stryker also gave $2,300 to Clinton and to Democratic Party contender John Edwards, who raised $35,912.

Notice that Pat Stryker's name showed up in donations--maximum donations--for three different candidates: Richardson, Clinton and Edwards. An interesting mix, to be sure: the front-runner, and two of the likely Veep possibilities?

But, perhaps, more interesting is the absence from the list of the other members of the Big Three. Where, on the list of donors, are Tim Gill and Jared Polis? Polis, perhaps, can be explained by concentrating on his own quest for the seat being vacated by Mark Udall (though surely his personal wealth is sufficient to both run a campaign and contribute to others').

But where is Tim Gill? Why, one wonders, isn't he spreading his wealth around so early in the process? I mean, really, he's helped but two straight state elections--why not buy a Presidential primary to add to the list?

Or, is it just that he and Polis are sitting on the sidelines for now, waiting to contribute until they can have the greatest effect. I'll be watching the next reports with great interest, to see if these two give their imprimatur to anybody at that point.

Posted by: Michael / 7/16/2007 11:54:00 PM

Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?