SD1: Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) out-raised his nearest competitor, Red Brown, by more than $300K and has a more than $400K advantage in cash on hand. Rep. David Simpson (R-Longview) came in third in both contributions ($100K) and cash on hand ($58K). Both figures are more than $400K behind Hughes. Simpson has out-spent his rivals by nearly 3-to-1.
SD19: Helen Madla, the challenger to Sen. Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio), reported raising less than $10K and has just over $2K on hand. Madla’s report covers just the last 15 days of 2015. A better indicator of her fundraising ability will be the 30-day-out report due on February 1.
SD24: Debt dwarfs contributions among the six Republican candidates for Sen. Troy Fraser’s open seat. Combined, the candidates reported loan balances of $3.15 million. Principal ranges from Brent Mayes’ $250K to Dawn Buckingham’s $773K. All but Mayes have loan balances of at least $500K.
Buckingham ($313K) and Cobb ($273K) combined received more than three quarters of all contributions for the reporting period. Almost half of Buckingham’s contributions came from two sources: National American Univ. board chairman Robert Buckingham ($100K) and Austin resident Ellyn Yacktman ($50K). Cobb received a pair of $50K donations from Dripping Springs investor Robert Seale III.
Rep. Susan King (R-Abilene) reported just over $10K in contributions but has the largest cash-on-hand balance ($854K).
Combined, the six candidates have spent more than $1.2 million.
We touched on SD26 yesterday. In SD27, the primary challenger to Sen. Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville) reported just $800 in contributions. The other incumbent senators on the ballot face no primary opposition.
