Johanns leads fundraising among Senate (Ne) candidates

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2835&u_sid=10309069

Published Sunday | April 13, 2008
Johanns leads fundraising among Senate candidates
BY ROBYNN TYSVER
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Republican Senate hopeful Mike Johanns flexed his financial muscle Sunday, as all three major Senate contenders released their financial reports for the first quarter of this year.

Johanns raised $641,000 in the first three months of 2008, bringing his total fundraising to $2.1 million.

Next up was Democrat Scott Kleeb, who entered the race in late-February and significantly outraised his key Democratic rival, Tony Raimondo.

Kleeb reported raising $274,000 from 1,013 contributors in his first financial campaign report, while Raimondo reported raising $172,000. Raimondo’s fundraising total included a $100,000 loan that the Columbus manufacturer made to his campaign.

The three campaigns released their first quarter reports Sunday, two days before they are officially due at the Federal Election Commission. The reports include the campaigns’ fundraising totals for January, February and March.

They are the first financial reports to be released by Kleeb and Raimondo, both of whom entered the race this year. Kleeb jumped into the race on Feb. 25, while Raimondo got into the race on Feb. 4.

FULL story at link.

[TheFarseer]

1. Next time I go home

(my folks live in Hastings) I'm buying some Kleeb T-shirts. That's how I'll donate.

[huskerlaw]

2. Gross.

It's pretty sad when the Repubs can't find anyone better than Johanns to run for Senate.

:puke:

On the other hand, Go KLEEB!! :woohoo:

[residentfan]

3. Kleeb is probably not going to win.

Unfortunately, I doubt Kleeb will come even close to winning. The Republican Party is jabbed deeply into the flesh of the Nebraskan voter. I wish Kleeb would try to establish himself as a politician first before he runs for such a prestigious office as United States Senate. He is, unfortunately, bound to fail. Is this an inadvisable run for Kleeb? I don't know, but if you look like you're going for any position that seems open, it could hurt you politically.

Another issue that I want to address is the idea the the Democratic Party of Nebraska is becoming the dumping ground for disaffected Republicans. For instance Tony Raimondo is running as a Democrat for this seat. He is doing it, quite frankly, because he knows he can't beat Johannes in the Republican primary! So, ta-da!, he's now a Democrat. Isn't that a coincidence?

In 2006 Kate Witek switched parties because of her disaffection and ran for re election as State Auditor for the Democrats. Kate was far from a Democrat in most of her political ideology, but she was angry at the Republicans over genre issues. She was defeated.

So the Democrats appear to getting so weak in Nebraska that they are becoming the state-wide dumping ground for Republicans. It's becoming a sadder and sadder case as time grinds on.

[TheFarseer]

4. I'm not so sure Kleeb has no chance

Kleeb got 45% in the 3rd district. In addition, many people don't like Johanns in the third because he was seen as screwing Western Nebraska in favor of Omaha and Lincoln. I'm not so sure Kleeb won't win Western Nebraska. Now if you factor in Omaha and Lincoln being significantly more sympathetic to Democrats, we could easily get a 40% from both of those districts. Then factor in people that don't usually vote coming out for Barack Obama, I think he has a reasonable chance to win. Johanns is clearly the favorite, but this is not impossible.

[Omaha Steve]

5. A ray of hope

Here is a fund raiser for DUers for Scott: http://www.actblue.com/page/du_for_kleeb


Read this from Scott's page: http://www.scottkleeb.com/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpNews&htmlID=9090&s=kleeb

Kleeb Builds Strong Fundraising Base
April 13, 2008

U.S. Senate candidate Scott Kleeb today released campaign fundraising totals for the period ending March 31st. Kleeb raised over a quarter of a million dollars in the five weeks after he announced his candidacy and ended March with over $280,000 cash on hand.

Kleeb’s report will show that he earned more support in the five weeks following his announcement than did former Bush Cabinet member Mike Johanns over a comparable period.

“There is an unprecedented level of excitement and enthusiasm behind Scott Kleeb,” said Kleeb Communications Director Joe Zepecki. “Nebraskans want change, and know that career politicians like Mike Johanns won’t deliver it.”

The following are highlights from Kleeb’s fundraising report, which will be submitted to the FEC on Tuesday.

• $274,454 raised from 1,013 contributors in the first quarter – despite being a candidate for only 36 days.
• Over 60% of contributions were from Nebraska residents
• 96% of donors can contribute again without hitting federal contribution limits
• $281,094 Cash on hand as of April 1st

“This campaign is about restoring Nebraska values to Washington to get results for hard working middle class families,” said Kleeb, “The outpouring of support from over 1,000 individual contributors committed to our brand of change is inspiring.”



DUers for Scott: http://www.actblue.com/page/du_for_kleeb