Have you seen the latest financial numbers in the 6th District?

[minvis]

Link to Duckworth's numbers

http://www.fecinfo.com/cgi-win/pml1_sql_efview.exe?DoFn=C004185252006&server=PML2


Link to Cegelis' numbers.

http://www.fecinfo.com/cgi-win/pml1_sql_efview.exe?DoFn=C003940072006&server=PML2

I must say I'm not too surprised by these numbers. We all knew that Duckworth would out-raise Cegelis and that it would be with big contributions. Her contributions went from just over $120,000 at the end of the year to almost $520,000 (517,747) by March 1st. The number of individual contributors went from 53 at the end of the year to 360. That's 307 additional contributors raising nearly $400,000, an average of nearly $1,300. Also, the number of contributors from Illinois was just over half (157). I couldn't drill into the contributors to see how many of those 157 were in district. Maybe someone else can get that information.

Some people may be surprised by the amount Duckworth has spent in the past two months, nearly $400,000, but I'm not. Getting started so late and having no ground support/volunteers to speak of, she had to spend her money on mass mailings and TV/radio spots. Just with those two things, $235,000 was spent. That's nearly the same amount Cegelis has spent over the past two years ($246,000). I also found it interesting that $30,000 was spent on polling (survey research), yet we have heard nothing about what those polls found out. I'm assuming that if it was even remotely good news for her on the polling, some of it would have been leaked out to bolster their supporters, get more media attention, etc.

As for Cegelis' numbers, it's more of the same. She raised just over $90,000 in the past two months from just over $228,000 to just over 318,420 from 338 additional contributors. That's an average of about $275 per contributor, very much in line with mostly small contributions. In addition, her expenses were roughly the same as they have been throughout the campaign. She gained another $35,000 net cash on hand so that it is nearly $75,000 as of March 1st. Duckworth's cash on hand is just over $120,000 and she will probably have to pay for election day workers rather than relying on volunteers as Cegelis will do. So as for the argument that Cegelis won't have any money left over for the general election, I think that's pretty much blown away. Duckworth and Cegelis will have fairly close cash on hand numbers on March 22nd when the primary is over.

[madrchsod]

1. that`s a hell of alot of money for a primary...

out here in the 14th i think i`ve seen 5 or 6 democratic primary signs..but we out here don`t have the big boys and girls blessing..."money, money, money- it`s a rich man`s world...."

[minvis]

2. It sure is!

The shame is that if part of that money had been funnelled to other districts like the 10th, 11th and 14th, we could have forced the Republicans to respond in those places as well. It's a damn shame!

[mopinko]

3. boy, who's burning money now?

oy.
as far as polling, it was more likely they were looking at issues than horse race.
and i will tell you, as far as money left for november- neither candidate wants to leave a dime in the bank on mar 22. the winner will easily start again. uncle rahm better keep the showers coming, either way.