A lot of important information gets lost in the numbers game the media plays every quarter when political candidates file their campaign finance disclosures.
The focus is always on who raised the most money and who has the biggest piggy bank going forward.
Spoiler alert: It’s always the incumbent.
Take the U.S. Senate race, in which Republicans are just now starting to pour out of the woodwork to challenge Democrat Michael Bennet.
After only a few weeks of fundraising, there’s no way they can match the more than $6 million Bennet’s collected during this five-year campaign cycle, nearly half of which he’s already spent before the campaign even kicks into gear.
But this is what the media focus on.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet raised more than $2 million in the third quarter of 2021 for his re-election bid, the Colorado Democrat’s campaign said Tuesday.
Bennet, who is seeking a third term in next year’s election, has raked in $6.5 million this cycle and heads into the final quarter of the year with more than $3.5 million in the bank, giving the one-time presidential candidate a significant head start as potential Republican challengers are still getting their campaigns off the ground.
PeakNation™ will remember Bennet’s pledge not to accept a dime from corporate political action committees, or PACs. And yet he does. More on that in a minute.
But first, where is all this money coming from?
Well, 67% of Bennet’s financial support is from out-of-state donors.
Here are the top metro areas where Bennet’s real supporters live, according to Open Secrets.
Now about those PAC dollars Bennet claims he doesn’t get, here’s what he gets.
Here are the top industries that contribute to Bennet.
The campaign crystal ball of who’s winning the race based on campaign donations is still too cloudy to read, because the candidates who are considered as the leading Republican contenders have all just recently joined the race.
But what these numbers do tell us, is that Bennet’s in-state support is in deep trouble.
More than $700,000 of the nearly $6.6 million Bennet’s raised since Jan. 1, 2017 was transferred from his failed presidential campaign.
Bennet raised just over $2 million this quarter, and yet his bank balance is down to $3.5 million.
The campaign hasn’t really even started yet. There’s been no polling but President Biden at the top of the ticket is tanking, and Bennet has already spent nearly $4 million of his campaign war chest just to meet payroll and raise more money — from out-of-state.