Semiannual campaign finance reports were due Friday, covering either (1) the first six months of the year for candidates who had no primary opponent or (2) the period since the end of the 8-day-out reporting period of either the primary or primary runoff election (or special or special runoff election).
A little over $46 million in contributions were made to Texas state office-holders and candidates for statewide and legislative offices during the first six months of 2016.
Today we take a high-level look at those reports and try to put the numbers in perspective.
Abbott’s record-breaking trend continues. Two years before he next faces primary voters, Gov. Greg Abbott reported raising $8.67M during the first six months of 2016, and he has $28.6M on hand. We put these into historical perspective in another post.
Big numbers for non-candidates. Nearly $1 out of every $3 contributed during the first half of 2016 went to someone who is not on the ballot this year.
Office-holders who are not up for re-election in 2016 raised $14.5M during the first half of 2016. In addition to Abbott’s $8.67M in contributions, other statewide contribution leaders included Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick ($2.0M) and AG Ken Paxton ($945K).
Republican incumbent statewide officials on the ballot in 2018 collectively have $49.4M on hand with 17 months to go before the filing period begins. Abbott and Patrick ($9.3M) between them account for more than three-quarters of that amount. Comptroller Glenn Hegar ($3.3M), Land Comm. George P. Bush ($3.0M) and AG Ken Paxton ($3.0M) account for nearly 20% of the total. Most of the rest is held by RR Comm. Christi Craddick ($1.4M) and Supreme Court Justice Don Willett ($0.6M). Agriculture Comm. Sid Miller reported $63K on hand, lowest of any non-judicial statewide official and lowest of any statewide elected official who has collected any campaign contributions in the last 18 months.
The top Democratic war chest belongs to Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston), who reported just under $7.0M on hand. He is not on the ballot this year.
Top fundraisers on the ballot. All candidates who are, or at least were, on the ballot raised $31.5M during the first six months of 2016. Speaker Joe Straus raised $5.1M of that total. Others raising more than $1M include: Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer ($1.7M), Rep. Bryan Hughes ($1.5M), Sen. Jose Menendez ($1.4M), Rep. Charlie Geren ($1.3M), Rep. Doug Miller ($1.2M) and Justice Eva Guzman ($1.0M). Rep. Wayne Smith ($959K) nearly reached the $1M mark.
Few challengers step up. Just nine challengers have raised at least $20K during the first half of 2016. Eight of the nine are Democrats. All but one of the nine challengers is running in Bexar, Dallas or Harris Co., and most of what we would consider the most competitive seats are on this list.
Challengers Raising at Least $20K Since January 1
$100,561 – Victoria Neave (D), challenging Rep. Kenneth Sheets (HD107)
$83,048 – Ben Rose (D), challenging Rep. Sarah Davis (HD134)
$53,320 – Mary Ann Perez (D), rematch against Rep. Gilbert Pena (HD144)*
$46,878 – Philip Cortez (D), rematch against Rep. Rick Galindo (HD117)*
$34,248 – Tomas Uresti (D), challenging Rep. John Lujan (HD118)
$27,668 – Bryan Chu (R), challenging Rep. Hubert Vo (HD149)
$27,210 – Terry Meza (D), challenging Rep. Rodney Anderson (HD105)
$24,630 – Laura Irvin (D), challenging Rep. Linda Koop (HD102)
$20,125 – Marisa Yvette Garcia-Utley (D), challenging Rep. J.M. Lozano (HD43)
* Indicates challenger raised more than the incumbent
In HD115, Dorotha Ocker just missed raising $20K but added a $100K loan, pushing her cash on hand to $106K. Rep. Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving) raised just over $128K during the first six months of the year, but just $7K since the primary. He reported having less than $2K on hand. We will be looking at the straight-ticket voting trends in this district later this week.
Several challengers to seats just outside the competitive designation did not report contribution numbers that would push their races any closer to competitive.
‘Competitive’-seat Challengers Raising $5K or Less Since January 1
$5,000 – Mari De Leon (R), challenging Rep. Terry Canales (HD40)
$4,193 – Sandra Blankenship (D), challenging Scott Cosper (HD54 open)
$3,106 – Lloyd Criss (D), challenging Rep. Wayne Faircloth (HD23)
$20 – Kendall Baker (R), challenging Rep. Gene Wu (HD137)
$0 – Paul Ray Gordon (D), challenging Rep. Tony Dale (HD136)
$0 – Jeff Lane (R), challenging Rep. Joe Moody (HD78)
Only a single Senate challenger reported raising at least $10K: Republican Pete Flores ($10.5K) running against Sen. Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio). Uresti reported raising $343K since the primary.
Statewide, Democrat Dori Contreras Garza reported raising $28K since the primary. She is challenging Justice Paul Green, who has raised $154K since the primary. The only challenger to out-raise an incumbent was Mary Lou Keel. She has raised $110K since January 1 but just over a hundred dollars since the runoff. Either figure is more than incumbent Judge Lawrence Meyers, the lone Democratic statewide official. He has not received any contributions this year.
No Green for the Greens. Minor parties risk losing ballot access if none of their statewide candidates receives at least 5% in November because Democrats fielded candidates for all statewide offices for the first time since 2002. Martina Salinas, the nominee for Railroad Commission, reported no contributions, $6 in expenditures and $94 on hand. The other five statewide nominees reported all zeroes. Several of their legislative candidates’ reports are not yet available, but, so far, Kat Gruene has raised the most of any Green Party candidate. The lone challenger to Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin) has raised $41. She spent just $1, so she still has $40 in the bank.
The Libertarian Party’s candidates also, for the most part, reported zeroes. Like the Greens, the Libertarians also risk losing ballot access if one of their statewide candidates fails to get 5% of the vote.
Lots of Green in CD23. U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-San Antonio) raised $452K since the primary, bringing his 2015-16 cycle total to $2.6M, second among the delegation only to U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady’s $3.4M. Former U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine) raised $314K since his primary, bringing his total for the election cycle to $1.3M. Gallego ranks 19th among U.S. House challengers nationally, and Hurd is 23rd among incumbents.
These figures do not include millions already committed from outside groups to the race.
We’ll take a closer look at some of the candidates’ reports in the coming weeks.
