Money Talk

Sylvia Smith notes that my congressman seems to be winning the fundraising-race with his Democratic opponent:

Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, cranked up his appeal to political action committees this year to help him stay in office and raised more money from the lobbying groups than ever before.

Souder’s campaign took in $142,700 since the first of the year, 60 percent from PACs. The most he has raised from PACs by the spring of an election year was $95,000, a year Souder had a strong primary opponent.

His opponent in the May 6 primary, Scott Wise, raised less than $5,000. Democrat Michael Montagano, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary, raised $120,859 since Jan. 1; PACs supplied half.

Souder has $293,000 on hand with a $2,027 debt. Montagano has $267,771 in the bank with no debts.

Souder is running for an eighth two-year term in Congress. He raised more than $1,300 a day since Jan. 1 through an uncharacteristically aggressive series of fundraisers.

I'm guessing Souder's efforts are a reaction to tepid finanacial numbers for GOP interest groups.