Sunday, April 22, 2007

Roscoe Reynolds & Campaign Cash

The latest reports are filed. Senator Reynolds has received one (yes, only one!) reportable contribution from within the 20th Senate District in this quarter. $500 from a Galax Physician. Nothing else from within the 6 County area. Let's not forget that he cannot solicit contributions while the General Assembly is in session, but to solicit contributions here in the 20th District he would have to actually get out and meet constituents, something he historically has been extremely lax in doing.

He has only received $1000 besides that. $500 each from Richmond insiders Norfolk Southern Corp. and the Virginia Coal Association.

Oh, don't let me forget his one other reportable contribution since January 1. Tim Kaine's Moving Virginia Leftward Forward PAC has shown him quite a bit of generosity. Senator Reynolds has 4 contributions this quarter, the first three amounting to only $1500 and only one of those is from a constituent. The Moving Virginia Forward contribution raises his quarterly total to $21,500.

No, I didn't slip on the keyboard. The Democratic leadership feels that this race is serious enough to dump $20,000 into Roscoe's lap. (I have an earlier post about the Senate Democratic Caucus paying a Texas firm to do opposition research. It seems the Democratic Party is slightly scared.)

Now don't get me wrong, Roscoe is certainly not cash poor. He's been steadily raising cash for this campaign for the past 4 years. During that time he has raised over $111,000.

He's raised that cash mostly from the same type of special interests that recently gave him $500 apiece. In fact, only a bit over 16% of Roscoe's $100,000 came from the 20th District. He's even raised more from outside the state than he has within this district, excluding Martinsville.

Of course, Jeff Evans has not even come close to raising $111,000 yet. But 100% of his contributions have come from the taxpayers in his District.

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