AP: Herseth is holding a slight monetary advantage at the moment

The Associated Press is reporting tonight that Stephanie Herseth holds a $650,000 lead on what's in the bank over her opponent, Republican Bruce Whalen. From the Aberdeen American News website:

In second-quarter reports filed to the Federal Election Commission, Herseth reports having raised a total of $1.2 million, with about $700,000 in the bank. She raised almost $114,000 from April through June.

Whalen has raised a total of $84,000, with about $44,000 of that raised in the second quarter of this year. He has about $50,000 in the bank.

Read it all here. And before you all pooh-pooh the figures, keep in mind that Mark Barnett and Steve Kirby each had more of a monetary lead over Governor Mike Rounds in the 2002 Primary.

Comments

PP said…
Jake, I think everyone here's pretty familiar with the history.

My point is that we shouldn't count him out of the game because of her lead, and that while money is pretty significant, it's not an end-all-be-all.

A candidate running the right race at the right time can win.
Anonymous said…
PP,

My comments were referencing my humble opinion that comparing Governor Rounds's victory in the 2002 REPUBLICAN PRIMARY for GOVERNOR with NO INCUMBENT and MULTIPLE CONTESTANTS to this GENERAL ELECTION for the U.S. HOUSE against ONE OPPONENT, an INCUMBENT no less, is unfair and illogical.

While we shouldn't count Whalen out, I would go out on a very sturdy limb to suggest that he is in a very deep hole at the moment. Analyzing the monetary situation alone reveals this, much less the success rate of incumbent house members.
Anonymous said…
Whalen was out before he started.
Anonymous said…
The idea that anyone, including Whalen, believes he has a chance is laughable. Take one for the team, buddy. Of course, we could always catch Herseth in some sort of scandal, couldn't we????
Angie said…
Not to be redundant, but I really think you're comparing apples and oranges. Although candidates have had come-from-behind victories, even though they raised/spent considerably less money, you just can't adequately compare a primary to a general.

Not only is there incumbency in the general (which gives Herseth a massive advantage), but there is also a much higher (and theoretically more representative sample) voter turnout for a general election compared to a primary. Most of the people who vote in primaries are you and me: people on the relative extremes of either side, who pay attention to local/state politics.

Looking at fundraising underdogs that have won in the past (Isaac Lattrel, Elli, and Rounds) doesn't mean they give much hope to Whalen.
Anonymous said…
Stephanie will have to pull a Janklow to end up out of office in 2007, and I think everyone knows that. While it's nice that PP shows encouragement to his party's candidate, I'm pretty sure he knows that any candidate/right race/right time doesn't quite fit this year's Congressional race. It's not as if Republicans haven't thrown the obligatory sacrificial lamb up against incumbent Democratic Congressmen before. This should be fairly familiar.
Anonymous said…
I wonder if Pat's pimping of Whalen has anything to do with his advertising revenue...
PP said…
Smarty pants - That just got placed today, thank you very much.

I've pimped for Republicans long before that.
Anonymous said…
You can give Whalen twice the money Herseth has and he still won't win.

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