Assembly Campaign Spending Down This Year -- Democrats Have Major Advantage

by: Hopeful

Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 11:29:27 AM EDT

Candidates for the General Assembly have raised and spent significantly less money thus far this year than at the same time four years ago, according to Jeff Brindle, Executive Director of the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).

The 29-day pre-election reports show Assembly candidates have raised $9.7 million and spent $5.2 million thus far in the 2009 campaign. Brindle said "these figures represent a 21 percent drop in fundraising and an almost 19 percent decrease in spending."

Democrats have a major money advantage:

Democratic Assembly candidates raised $6.8 million and spent $4 million compared with Republican Assembly candidates who raised almost $2.9 million and spent $1.2 million. Independent candidates have raised $84,000 and reported minimal spending. According to the reports, Democratic candidates have reported over $2.7 million as cash- on-hand and Republican candidates reported a balance of over $1.6 million.

Reporters are available at the ELEC website and to my surprise I was finally able to view them using my Mac. Hooray! I did have to allow Java unrestricted access which seems unnecessary.