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Antony Williams shows us (some of) the money

Antony Williams shows us (some of) the money

Some of you might might remember that when we told state Senator Anthony Williams (D-Philadelphia) last month about the skepticism surrounding his claims of a rapid fundraising pace, he offered to provide some documentation.

Well, it took pa2010.com Central far too long to follow up, but this week Williams, the latest and last entrant into the Democratic primary for governor, held up his end of the deal. Though he wouldn’t show us a full, updated bank statement with the balance in his campaign account, we feel he fulfilled the spirit of our agreement by showing us a deposit slip from very shortly after we spoke, which shows a February deposit for $500,100 into the Williams for Governor account. At the time, Williams said he had already brought in half-a-million.

Since then, he has said he’s closing in on $2 million in contributions and commitments—again, a truly incredible clip at which to be raising money. But even if this half-a-million dollar deposit were all he had—and at this point we’re confident it’s not—it would still represent a fundraising haul that leaves some other candidates in the dust.

There’s been a great deal of speculation as to how Williams is getting so much cash so fast, and the rumor-mill seems to have settled on the idea that school-choice advocates are cutting him big checks. That will all be detailed in campaign finance reports next month.

For now, Williams has mostly shrugged off the intense interest in his fundraising, declining to go into any specifics about who his biggest backers are.

share001btn Antony Williams shows us (some of) the money

March 18, 2010 at 9:14 am

--Dan Hirschhorn

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comments [15] | post a comment

  1. Ahdeesan

    Mar 18th, 2010

    <..>

  2. Ahdeesan

    Mar 18th, 2010

    That was an unsuccessful post…

    What I tried to allude to was Citizens United, but oh well.

    But in all seriousness, I really want to see where and who he’s coming from.

  3. David Diano

    Mar 18th, 2010

    But, would he be able to move all that money into a Senate race with the federal campaign limits?

  4. Reality

    Mar 18th, 2010

    What Senate race? He’s running for re-election as a state Senator — which has no limits.
    Rumor is he deposited 2 checks — one for $100 to open the account, one for $500,000 from a school choice advocate.

  5. Brett

    Mar 18th, 2010

    Williams will never be governor, waste of time, waste of money.

  6. I'm a White Guy for Williams

    Mar 18th, 2010

    Tony Has the courage to face down the Teachers Unions who have destroyed our Schools . He has Conservative views and will draw Tons of Cash from Rich White Guys . People could learn a lot from Tony I suggest they pay attention

  7. Brett

    Mar 18th, 2010

    Pay attention To what a worthless campaign?

  8. David Diano

    Mar 18th, 2010

    Reality-
    Oops. Sorry. I was up until 5 am doing some computer stuff last night and was only half-awake when I wrote that. Seeing him referred to as Senator put my brain in “fed” mode while trying to be in “state” mode.

  9. BB

    Mar 18th, 2010

    How about a little transparency Mr. Williams? It might boost your credibility a little bit and make folks warm up to you and consider more seriously your run for gov. After all, with all the other weak candidates out there, why can’t you have as good a chance as any? And, I’ll say it again, we need to end the two party system in this state and reduce the red tape needed for other candidates to run for office. That along with term limits at all levels of government and ending the requirement that someone must be a member of the D or R to vote in the primary. That is antiquated and needs to end. That is absolutely taxation WITHOUT representation. It’s time to CHANGE THE CULTURE in Pa. politics. Enough already.

  10. Brett

    Mar 18th, 2010

    Hey BB, you were supposed to run and I was to be your campaign manager, what happened compadre.

  11. Down to Earth

    Mar 19th, 2010

    He only enter this race to split the vote, in Lancaster ! People walking around scratching their heads ” Williams Who ? “

  12. Ed H.

    Mar 19th, 2010

    I figure he has an eye on the race for Mayor against Michael Nutter. Philadelphia has a $10,000 limit on campaign contributions per person running for city offices. With no state contribution limits, he can wash the Philadelphia TV market with ads for him, which means more name recognition a year ahead of the Mayor’s race against Nutter, who’s getting beat up because the national and regional economy is down and along with it tax revenues. Williams is relatively safe in his Senate seat, so he can run for Mayor and have his job in Harrisburg to fall back on if he can’t beat Nutter. And then he still opens up his name for Mayor the following election if he doesn’t beat Nutter.

  13. Ed H.

    Mar 19th, 2010

    BB-

    Why would you want to limit the rights of people to elect the people they choose to elect to office?

  14. md

    Mar 21st, 2010

    Go Tony… do the darn thing!

  15. Brett

    Mar 22nd, 2010

    Yeh withdraw!, tee hee

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