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Toomey outraises Sestak, but cash situation remains murkier

Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey continued to raise cash at a prolific pace last quarter, smashing his previous best as he kept turning heads with his growing prowess in the money race. But Democratic opponent Joe Sestak also enjoyed impressive fundraising success after dispatching Arlen Specter in the May primary.

And with Toomey already on the air, polls showing forecasting a close race and the candidates’ respective parties confronting different spending scenarios in the Keystone State, the actual financial state of the competitive Senate race was less clear Tuesday, as both campaigns sought to win a news cycle with their fundraising numbers.

Toomey’s campaign said it raised $3.1 million between April 1 and June 30, his best quarter so far. Sestak’s campaign said it raised almost $2 million during the same period. About $1.6 million of that was raised after the May 18 primary. When full campaign finance reports are filed later this month, Toomey will report finishing the quarter with about $4.6 million in the bank, compared to more than $2 million for Sestak.

“I am so appreciative for all the support I have received for my candidacy,” Toomey said in a statement. “As I travel across the state, I meet more and more Pennsylvanians who want to join our campaign in order to bring true change and fiscal sanity to Washington. If I am elected to the U.S. Senate, I intend to do just that.”

Both campaigns appear to be raising money at a faster clip than ever before. But while Sestak’s spending effectively went dead after he dispatched Specter, Toomey has spent more heavily. He actually had slightly less money in the bank on June 30 than he did at the close of the pre-primary reporting period on April 28. And that was before he began a statewide ad buy with five new TV spots.

Exactly how that money is being spent remains to be seen from the full reports. But Toomey campaign manager Mark Harris said the campaign is spending money at a sensible rate. He noted that the campaign’s current cash-on-hand number includes money that was spent on both a pre-primary ad buy and a smaller post-primary ad buy that sought to slow Sestak’s momentum.

“The whole point of raising money is to spend it, to win voters over,” Harris said. “Is [Sestak] up on television today? No.

“He’s also sitting in a much easier spot because the big Democratic donors haven’t given him anything,” Harris added of Sestak. “So he can just go around getting checks. All things told, we’re very happy with where things are at the moment.”

Toomey also has another advantage: National Democrats already spent most of the $1.7 million limit for coordinated spending on Specter’s primary, whereas Republicans can still spend that money on Toomey (both parties can still make unlimited, independent expenditures).

Sestak’s fundraising clearly picked up with Specter out of the picture, partly, Politico reports, due to Sestak’s courtship of Specter donors.

“The response around the state to Joe’s message of putting working families first has been tremendous,” Sestak campaign spokesman Jonathon Dworkin said. “We are especially encouraged by the generous support that allowed him to do so well in such a short period of time. As Joe crisscrosses Pennsylvania—like he did in attending more than 650 event from January 1 through the primary—we find that Pennsylvania voters are looking for the pragmatic approach he offers and not a return to an ideology that puts big corporations first in the hope that the wealth will trickle down.”

July 13, 2010 at 6:11 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Joe Sestak, Pat Toomey

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