| After a fundraising quarter characterized as a successful one, Mike Ciresi's Senate campaign is looking to ramp up its operations and staff numbers. According to job postings on PoliticalWire's job board, Team Ciresi is looking for a Field Director and a Finance Director.
On the other side of the DFL Senate field, a powerful endorsement from Rep. Frank Moe (DFL-Bemidji) was the highlight of an event last week that Franken staff called "moving and inspiring." That, on top of this morning's announcement that Franken raised over $1.9 million during the second quarter of 2007, makes for a happy post-holiday media cycle for Team Franken. Spokesman Andy Barr said "Our success this quarter shows that Al can win by running a powerful grassroots campaign. We?ve invested a lot into building our grassroots fundraising program, and that strategy is already paying off. With over 36,000 donors already, we?ll be ready to take on Sen. Coleman and his special interest friends in 2008."
Meanwhile, incumbent Norm Coleman's universe is a little more uncomfortable this week, with the opening of a media blitz by Americans United for Change demanding that he help wind down the war in Iraq. With increasing schisms in the Republican Senate caucus over the war (Senators Voinovich, Domenici, and Lugar have recently defected from the White House line on war policy), pressure on several Republicans currently running for re-election will be acute. Watch for plenty of action targeting Coleman, Maine's Susan Collins, and New Hampshire's John Sununu. |
| Some quick hits from the Franken campaign release regarding Q2 fundraising:
- The average contribution to the campaign in the second quarter was $65.10.
- Nearly 2,000 people who contributed to the campaign in the first quarter, or nearly 20%, made another contribution in the second quarter.
- The campaign has received contributions from every county in Minnesota and from every state in the nation.
- The campaign received only $5,500 from PACs in the second quarter, including $5,000 from Sen. Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.) Prairie PAC and $500 from GMP Political Education League, the PAC of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics, & Allied Workers International Union. In the first quarter, Al received just $15,000 from PACs (including $5,000 from his own Midwest Values PAC), while Sen. Coleman received nearly a third of his total ($450,000) from PACs.
Take those statements for what you will. More analysis will be upcoming. |
