CD1 Fundraising Is Almost Even, But the Candidates Accuse Each Other of Being Tainted

In the race for money in CD1, Democratic Representative Carol Shea-Porter has raised about eighteen percent more than her Republican opponent, Jeb Bradley.

That’s even though Bradley’s total includes 200 thousand dollars he’s loaned himself.

Massie Ritsch is with the Center for Responsive Politics, a non partisan campaign finance watch dog group.

Its pretty common for candidates who are running against incumbents to put up money from their own pockets. Its almost always a terrible investment because they almost always lose.

Former Congressman Bradley is clearly not your typical challenger.

He held the first District seat for 4 years until 2006, when he lost it to Shea Porter.

Alicia Preston of the Bradley campaign says he had to put his own money into the race, because the National Democratic Party has poured 2.4 million dollars into the First District.

One can’t underestimate the impact of the D triple C dumping 2 million into the state. Those are resources that are going directly to Carol Shea Porter and don’t come from her pocketbook.

Shea Porter campaign officials are making no apologies for getting national Democratic help.

They also say they’ve gotten more than 60 percent of their own 1.3 million dollars from more than 7000 individuals.

Campaign director Pia Carusone says Carol Shea Porter has raised all that even though she won’t take contributions from certain donors.

She doesn’t take money from lobbyists or from business related PACs. And a lot of donors and voters feel comfortable donating to her campaign, they know it does make a difference in the election.

When she first ran in 2006, Shea Porter said she would take no PAC money, of any kind.

But she modified that position later on that year, and still takes money from Democratic leaning groups and labor unions.

Bradley’s campaign officials say they’ve noticed that She Porter raised 169,000 dollars from labor unions.

They claim that makes her overly beholden to big labor.

But Shea Porter campaign head Pia Carusone says her candidate need make no apology for taking union contributions.

The fact that workers, and that’s how this works, right, workers donate to their unions and those unions, when it comes time for elections, support candidates who support them. There’s no sort of surprise there.

Shea Porter officials say Jeb Bradley’s policy of taking money from business PACs is much more troubling.

He’s raised about 175,000 dollars from those groups.

The Congresswoman has said in debates that business lobbying has made it possible for many big corporations to pay little or no taxes.

Bradley campaign officials say they hear a much different message from the business leaders they talk to.

In that sense, Alicia Preston of the campaign repeats an argument about small businesses that Bradley himself uses when debating his opponent.

They want someone in office who is going to lower their taxes, not increase them by allowing the tax cuts to expire, so that they’re able to do business.

This argument over which PACs are worse finds little acceptance with the staff at the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C.

They wish candidates who swear off some PACs simply reject all PAC money.

Spokesman Massie Ritsch says the analysis goes something like this:

In the grand scheme of things, …, a PAC is a PAC. Its money pooled together by an interest group to have access to and influence members of Congress. So if you’re making a pledge against special interests or unfair access then you can’t really draw the line at corporate pacs being bad but the rest of the pacs being good.

The race for Congress in the First District will culminate Tuesday.

But the fundraising race will likely go on after that.

It’s a rite of passage for those who win the right to serve in Congress.

There’s another election in two years, so it serves a member well to keep on raising money.