Congressional challengers get slow start to campaign fundraising

Federal Election Commission reports show the democrat candidates who plan to challenge Iowa’s four republican Congressman haven’t raised much cash for their cause. Eugene Blanshan and Joyce Schulte — the two democrats who’re running for the chance to unseat first-term republican Congressman Steve King — have raised just 26-thousand dollars between them. That’s about an eighth as much as King has raised for his reelection campaign. John McCormally, a spokesman for the Iowa Democratic Party, contends that it’s not necessary for the democrat who runs in western Iowa’s 32-county congressional district to raise a lot of money. McCormally says the district’s so huge and covers so many media markets it doesn’t make sense to run expensive campaign commercials. He says the emphasis should be on “grassroots” campaigning. David Franker, the democrat from North Liberty who’s running against republican Congressman Jim Leach, has raised about 20-thousand dollars. Paul Johnson, the Decorah democrat who has decided to run against republican Congressman Tom Latham, didn’t file a fundraising report which means he hadn’t raised that much cash by the March 31st reporting deadline. McCormally, the party spokesman, says Johnson got in the race late. McCormally says Johnson didn’t start raising money until after March 31st, the deadline for disclosing first quarter candidate fundraising. The democrat challenger who’s been the most proficient at raising money is Bill Gluba, who has run for Congress before. Gluba has raised over 200-thousand dollars for his race against republican Congressman Jim Nussle, but about a fourth of that came from Gluba himself in the form of a startup loan. The Iowa Democratic Party’s McCormally says incumbents always have an easier time raising money.McCormally says Nussle’s going to have an even easier time of raising money than most incumbents because Nussle’s now in a position of authority as chairman of the House Budget Committee. Republicans say the democrats’ lack of campaign cash shows the challengers are unlikely to unseat an incumbent republican congressman.