Saturday, April 26, 2008

Burton is Hurtin'...or is he?

The Star reports today that Dan Burton has spent more in his primary election against former Marion County Coroner, John McGoff, than in any race since his election. Of course, given his prior opponents (no disrespect intended, but I'm being realistic), this isn't saying much. The Star also busted Burton's chops the day before for leading the Indiana delegation in taxpayer funded mailings to his constituents of $190,000. (Wonder what the National Taxpayer's Union is saying about that?!?) So, one might think Burton is in real trouble, finally.

But here's the line from the story that had me nervous:

"Burton had $472,793 in the bank April 16 compared with McGoff's $43,343." Unless McGoff has already bought his TV for the big push, $43,000 isn't too impressive. I hope McGoff pulls this off. Indiana needs a member of Congress who has better things to do than kiss Roger Clemens' behind.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

On the subject of money, Andre Carson comes in lighter than both Woody Myers and David Orentlicher in cash-on-hand, as of the last reports filed with the FEC.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/LOCAL18/804260434/1310/ARCHIVE

In my opinion, this doesn't bode well for Carson, who seems to have topped out in his support. However, it is critical to note that Carson need not get 50% of the vote. A plurality wins this deal, and even though we will likely see that Carson has not added supporters from the percentages favoring him in early polls, his supporters have been steadfastly loyal, so he has not lost many either. It's going to be a barn-burner, folks.


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think a lot of money has come in since the April 24 reporting day. Watch the 48 hour reports. Andre Carson is not having a money problem.........

Chris Worden said...

Far be it from me to tout anything Advance Indiana says, but objectively, I AM always concerned when a candidate, be he R or D gets a lot of out-of-state money. I'm left to wonder why it is that these folks are NOW giving this money when Andre Carson has been running for a while. Could it possibly have been to avoid the reporting deadlines? I could be totally off base, but it's food for thought.

Eclecticvibe said...

The Democratic Primary in the 7th district shows why Instant RunOff Voting is important for the major parties as well as third parties. The candidate selected could have the support of only a small minority of people. If a candidate wins with 25% of the vote, they still will, even though 75% of the people didn't vote for them. Ranking your choices at the time of voting could eliminate the chance of an unpopular candidate being elected.

Anonymous said...

but IPOPA that is why we have the 48 hour rule so that everyone can see any donations after the last report.........the problem here is that Woody Myers is trying to buy a seat with 1.5 million dollars of his own money. He is finding out that this seat is not for sale so he is putting more money in the kitty to try and convince us to sell him a congressional seat. NO SALE