Last year, Ed Fitzgerald said he needed to be in the same neighborhood for fundraising that John Kasich was four years ago when he was challenging an incumbent governor.
By Ed’s own standard, he is failing. Miserably.
I thought he would miss the mark. But I didn’t think it would be this bad.
The bottom line?
Kasich cash on hand: $7.9 million
Fitz cash on hand: $1.4 million
Also, Fitzgerald included January contributions in his report. Kasich did not. So the deficit is actually much larger.
The Ohio Democratic Party made another last minute transfer to Fitzgerald’s campaign to prop up his numbers, for a total of over $458,000. Almost a third of Fitz’s cash on hand came from the state party.
The Democrats are trying to spin Kasich’s huge advantage as “Wall Street versus the grassroots”. Check out his campaign manager’s statement:
“Thanks to the contributions of everyday Ohioans, we are on track to unseat an incumbent governor who has sacrificed our middle class to line the pockets of his Wall Street buddies,” FitzGerald campaign manager Nick Buis said via email. “The people of Ohio are making it clear that their voices won’t be silenced by excessive campaign checks from the one percent who have benefited from Gov. Kasich’s economic ‘miracle.’”
Buis can try to spin these numbers, but the fact is that Kasich raised more money from everyday Ohioans than Fitzgerald did. Kasich has more donations of $100 or less than Fitzgerald. 1400 more.
In fact, 45%, close to half, of Fitzgerald’s total raised came from PACs and committees (read special interests). Only 10% of Kasich’s total money raised came from such sources.
Even worse, Fitzgerald is burning through his money at twice the rate that Kasich is. No matter what angle you look at these numbers from, it’s all bad for Ed Fitzgerald.
Make no mistake, this is a disaster for the top of the Democratic ticket. Fitzgerald got no help from the national party, either. If they had ANY faith in him as a candidate, surely they would have helped him get to over $2 million. They didn’t. They know a sinking ship when they see one.
