No Signs of Congressional Primary at 4th District Convention

If you didn’t know Congressman Steve King was facing a primary challenge this June, the Fourth Congressional District Convention this past Saturday wouldn’t have changed your way of thinking. Not only were the grounds outside of the Fort Dodge High School covered in King for Congress signs, the delegates meeting inside the school’s gymnasium were solidly behind their incumbent representative.

Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey, also made no bones about who he is supporting in the primary – Congressman Steve King. When Northey told the assembled convention delegates that the district already has a thoughtful conservative representative in Congress he got a standing ovation from at least 90 percent of gave him a standing ovation.

King’s challenger, State Senator Rick Bertrand, had a booth in the lunchroom, but he opted not to show up to the convention. While the delegates are clearly in King’s corner, the decision not to speak to the grassroots activists he hopes to represent sent a bad message. Speaking to what could be a hostile crowd is never easy, but Bertrand knew what he was signing up for when he decided to challenge King. Regardless of the audience, he should have gone and made his case to the delegates.

Money Talks: Dandekar Blows Away Her Competition in Democrat 1st District Primary

Former Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives Pat Murphy has fallen behind his primary opponents in the Democrat primary in Iowa’s 1^st Congressional District.  Murphy was the first candidate to publically announce his candidacy, but since then, he has been surpassed by most of the field in terms of fundraising.

Murphy raised just $77,914.00 from June through September, but reported having $176,247.06 cash on hand at the end of the reporting period.  Former State Senator Swati Dandekar raised $223,747.00 in the fundraising period and has $187,079.78 cash on hand.  Dandekar’s fundraising prowess isn’t surprising, but Murphy was also out-fundraised in the period by Cedar Rapids City Councilwoman Monica Vernon and Cedar Rapids attorney Dave O’Brien.  Vernon raised $120,712.30 and has $162,308.69 cash on hand, while O’Brien raised $104,973.00 and has $79,598.63 in the bank.

The one Democrat that Murphy was able to out-fundraise was State Representative Anesa Kajtazovic, who raised a paltry $37,050.01, and has just  $29,171.96 cash on hand.  Almost 20 percent of the money that Kajtazovic raised is from one Waterloo company, VGM group.  The company’s CEO, President, and other executives have donated a total of $6,600 to Kajtazovic’s campaign.  Kajtazovic is also using a VGM subsidiary as a vendor for her congressional campaign.

VGM is an industry leader in home medical equipment.  Their support of Kajtazovic or any Democrat running for Congress is interesting considering that Obamacare includes a medial device tax that Republicans have been pushing to repeal.

In other races…

Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District

State Representative Mark Lofgren raised $57,182.00 for his congressional campaign over the past three months.  Most of the money he raised was from the Muscatine business community.  Lofgren also reported having $24,912.19 cash on hand, which won’t do much to keep a Republican primary opponent from entering the race.

While Lofgren’s fundraising numbers are not much to write home about, the report does show that he has hired Davenport-based Victory Enterprises to consult his campaign.  Lofgren is paying Victory Enterprises $2,250 per month for its services.  Victory Enterprises has a decent record in congressional primaries.  In 2006, they helped Davenport restaurateur Mike Whalen win a contested primary in Iowa’s First Congressional District, and in 2012, they helped Bettendorf businessman John Archer win his primary in Iowa’s 2^nd Congressional District.

Congressman Dave Loebsack awaits whoever wins the Republican nomination.  Loebsack raised $151,156.64 in the period and has over $332,000 in the bank.

Iowa’s 3^rd Congressional District

Former State Senator Staci Appel raised an impressive $238,877.04 for her campaign against Republican Congressman Tom Latham.  For his part, Latham raised $417,051.53 and has more than $870,000 in the bank compared to Appel’s $196,000.  Defeating Latham will be no easy task, especially considering he just put an incumbent member of congress out to pasture in 2012.

Iowa’s 4^th Congressional District

Jim Mowrer, the Democrat challenging Congressman Steve King, is also off to an impressive start to his campaign.  Mowrer raised $181,514.19 in his first three months as a candidate.  While that’s not Christy Vilsack type money, it is significant, especially when running against King, who’s not known to be a prolific fundraiser.  Mowrer has $128,857.84 cash on hand.  To put that in perspective, Matt Campbell, King’s 2010 opponent, only raised $215,646.81 for his entire campaign.  Anyone who thinks King is going to get a breather after being challenged by Vilsack in 2012 better think again.  King reported raising just $109,871 and has $92,000 cash on hand.

U.S. Senate

Matt Whitaker reported that he raised $104,555 for his U.S. Senate bid.  While that’s less than he raised in his initial fundraising period, he’s not too far off his original pace.  Whitaker’s fundraising pace is off 10 percent, which isn’t a positive sign, but it’s not nearly as bad as David Young’s situation.  David Young’s fundraising pace dropped by 28 percent.

A Bad Sign

We all know that the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate are not collectively keeping pace with Congressman Bruce Braley’s fundraising, but they are being out-fundraised by the Democrat candidates running for Congress in Iowa’s 1^st Congressional District.  In the last reporting period, the four Democrats running in Iowa’s 1^st District raised $564,000 collectively, while the four main Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate collectively raised just $543,000.

Think about that for a second.