send to a friend | print | comment

Pike closing in on $1M donated

Democrat Doug Pike is continuing to heavily self-fund his own campaign in the 6th Congressional District, and has now given almost $1 million to the effort, according to campaign finance data.

Pike raised about $116,000 during the last three months of 2009, about $13,000 more than primary opponent Manan Trivedi collected. But Pike, a former Inquirer editorial writer, kicked in another $340,000 of his own money, including in-kind contributions from campaign expenses he paid for. All together, he’s given his campaign more than $962,000, and he finished the year with $1.1 million in cash on hand. That’s almost $1 million more than Trivedi had, a disparity created almost entirely by Pike’s own money.

It’s that financial advantage that has many local Democrats skeptical that Trivedi can win the May primary, even as some speculate increasingly—if quietly—that Trivedi’s personal and geographic profile make him a more electable candidate in the general election.

The campaign said Pike has received more than 1,300 individual contributions. Meanwhile, party insiders continue to contribute to Pike’s campaign, if only in small amounts. Donors late last year included former Philadelphia City Councilwoman Happy Fernandez; Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority head and former ward leader Terry Gillen; Marc Stier, the state director of Health Care for America Now; and former state Revenue Secretary Tom Wolf.

Donors from inside and outside of Pennsylvania also gave Pike’s campaign a few thousand dollars through the political action committee of J Street, the left-of-center Israeli policy group that recently included Pike on its first list of 2010 endorsements.

Campaign finance data for Lower Merion Township Commissioner Brian Gordon, who is also running in the primary, had not yet been published online late Sunday night.

February 1, 2010 at 8:00 am

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Brian Gordon, Doug Pike, Manan Trivedi, PA-6

comments

comments [9] | post a comment