A wealth of post-holiday, last-minute fundraising pleas

We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again: The days before the close of any FEC filing deadline are a time for candidates to squeeze every last dollar out of their supporters.

“Deadline in 2 days. Help elect a principled leader today,” read the subject-line of an e-mail Tuesday from Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey’s campaign manager.

“We are building the momentum necessary to win this race,” Bethlehem Mayor and Democratic 15th District hopeful John Callahan wrote to supporters a couple hours earlier. “But Charlie [Dent] and his Washington machine are going to use every dirty trick in the book to try and distract the voters in the Lehigh Valley from the real issues in this election. Charlie doesn’t want to talk about his dismal record on job creation, out of control deficit spending, and Big Business special interest money.”

Framing a race as competitive is always a good way to get some cash.

“Since I launched my campaign in early September,” former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan wrote Monday, “many pundits shifted their predictions for the Congressional campaign in Pennsylvania’s 7th District from ‘Leans Democrat’ to ‘Toss-Up.’ One Washington Post reporter ranked our race as one of the top 10 seats in the country most likely to switch parties. But this is a mixed blessing. Our early successes mean that national Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, will focus more of their resources and step up their fundraising efforts on behalf of my opponent in an attempt to prop up his campaign. They are going to be pulling out all of the stops—which is why your support is so important.”

His likely opponent, state Representative Bryan Lentz (D-Delaware), had e-mailed his supporters earlier the same day to remind them that “we are just hours away from our critical end of year deadline and we are so close to our goal for the year.”

Lentz’s last fundraiser of the year will be held Tuesday evening at state Senator Daylin Leach’s house.