Money doesn't always determine who wins and loses elections, but, at least at this stage of the 2010 campaign, it sends signals. One of the reasons cited by Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) for his withdrawal last week was his paltry — $845! — haul over the first quarter. Of course, there may have been other reasons he decided not to run.

In any event, here are several second-quarter financial updates for some key Senate races:

 

Florida (Mel Martinez, R, retiring). The blog post of the Orlando Sentinel calls the fundraising of Gov. Charlie Crist (R) "astonishing":

Gov. Charlie Crist raised more than $4.3 million in less than seven weeks as a U.S. Senate candidate, an astonishing sum of money that is more than his likely Democratic challenger raised in six months. ...

Crist has gone on a fundraising rampage since he announced May 12 that he would not be seeking re-election and wanted to move on to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez of Orlando. He held more than 20 fundraisers around the state, in DC, NY and Atlanta — and now we see the payoff. The Crist camp reports it raised on average $86,000 a day over the 50 days left in the quarter after he declared his candidacy.

By comparison, his primary opponent, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio raised just $340,000 for the fundraising quarter that ended June 30, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek raised $1.2 million. Meek has raised a grand total of $2.6 million all year.

Kentucky (Jim Bunning, R). Roll Call's John McCardle reports that Bunning's second-quarter totals were less than he hoped for:

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), who continues to insist he is running for re-election next year despite falling short of his fundraising goals, raised just $302,000 in the second quarter of the year.

Bunning's total is almost exactly half of the $603,000 that Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R) raised for his Senate exploratory effort. Grayson is the preferred candidate of many Republican insiders, who view Bunning as a political dead man walking based on his poll numbers and lackluster fundraising, among other things. But Grayson has pledged that he will not run against Bunning and has said he is only preparing to run in the event Bunning steps aside.

Bunning reported $596,000 in cash on hand as of June 30, which was slightly more than the $572,000 Grayson showed in the bank.

Bunning was also far outraised by one of the two Democrats vying for the 2010 Senate nomination: state Attorney General Jack Conway raised a whopping $1.3 million. Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo (D) raised about the same as Bunning did, $303,000.

Earlier this year, Bunning set a goal of raising $2 million for his campaign by the end of the second quarter. Through June 30, he had raised $1.2 million. He had said he if he did not meet his fundraising goals he would reassess his plans, although he has since remained steadfast in saying he is running for re-election.

Bunning may have his hands full with a potential GOP primary challenge, but the Democrats are feuding as well. Here are some excerpts from an e-mail message from Conway's chief strategist, Mark Riddle, regarding Mongiardo's fundraising numbers:

Kim Geveden, Mongiardo's campaign manager, must have received his formal training as an accountant for Enron. Their campaign's attempt to save face with their ridiculous press release simply does not stand up to scrutiny. The simple facts are as follows:

Jack Conway just out-raised Dan Mongiardo by over $1 million in a single quarter.

In their only quarter of joint fundraising, Conway out-raised Mongiardo outside of Jefferson County by approximately 2-1.

In this last quarter, Mongiardo raised just over $300,000 and spent over $200,000 — for a net gain of just $100,000 in the last 90 days. These are not the numbers of a credible candidate for the United States Senate.

The Dan Mongiardo campaign seems insistent on divisive rhetoric that pits region against region, urban vs. rural, and which appeals to stereotypes that have long since passed away. If Dan Mongiardo continues to bad mouth Louisvillians as not being part of Kentucky, it begs the question: Since he does not seem to value Louisvillians as Kentuckians, is the Mongiardo campaign prepared to return Jefferson County contributions?

New York (Kirsten Gillibrand, D). Aaron Blake of The Hill reports on Gillibrand's big money lead over likely Democratic primary challenger, Rep. Carolyn Maloney.

Gillibrand raised $1.5 million (after a $2.3 million first quarter) in the second quarter and increased her cash on hand by $1 million, to a total of $3.2 million. Maloney, who is still technically a House candidate, raised $577,000 through her House committee — a step up from her usual activity but not quite on the level of a serious big-state Senate contender. She increased her cash on hand to $1.7 million.

So Gillibrand has almost a two-to-one cash advantage, which isn't as big as most incumbents' at this juncture but is still significant. The real question is how much Maloney will raise in the third quarter, which will include next week's fundraiser with former President Clinton.

Can Maloney draw big money from liberals concerned about Gillibrand's politics? We'll see in three months.

Nothing in the article about a potential Republican candidate. Rep. Peter King, whose name has been bandied about, has not said much since his farewell to Michael Jackson.

Ohio (George Voinovich, R, retiring). According to the Columbus Dispatch's Daily Briefing blog, the fundraising of ex-Rep./Bush Trade Rep Rob Portman (R) has dwarfed that of the leading Democratic candidates.

Portman reported raising more than $1.7 million during the second quarter of 2009 ... [which] nearly doubled the $900,000 raised by Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher during the quarter. And Portman's take was nearly eight times more than the $228,000 raised by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Fisher's rival for the Democratic nomination. ...

Portman reported more than $4.3 million in the bank, well more than the $1.48 million Fisher had on hand. Brunner reported $435,000 raised so far in the campaign, but she did not list how much money her campaign has on hand.

Note: Roll Call has a complete FEC chart of fundraising reports for the second quarter.

Tags: On The Ballot