In Third Quarter Ayotte Raised More Money Than Hodes Raised in U.S. Senate Race
NH FEC
New Hampshire Union Leader
Daisy Hsiang-Ching Tseng
Boston University Washington News Service
Oct. 27, 2009
WASHINGTON – Republican Kelly Ayotte, a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, raised more money in the third quarter of this year than Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., her Democratic opponent. According to candidate campaign finance filings with the Federal Election Commission, Ayotte raised $613,111 for the three months that ended Sept. 30 and Hodes raised $582,046.
But Hodes, who has been running since February, has raised a total of $1.62 million whereas Ayotte has been running only since July, when she resigned as state attorney general..
About 80 percent of Ayotte’s money was from individual contributions, according to Brooks Kochvar, her campaign manager. Hodes has received 69 percent of his money from individuals, according to his filing with the election commission.
First-time candidates generally get most of their money from individuals because they haven’t built up relationships with organizations or corporations that have political action committees, according to Dave Levinthal, communications director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that reports on and analyzes campaign finances.
Political action committees are organized to raise and spend money to elect and defeat candidates. Most committees represent business, labor or ideological interests and are used to channel money into campaign war chests.
When incumbents run for reelection, they tend to get more money from PACs than they did when they first ran. When Democrat Jeanne Shaheen beat incumbent Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., in 2008 she received 79 percent of her contributions from individuals, whereas Sununu had 62 percent from individuals, according to OpenSecrets.org, the Web site of the Center for Responsive Politics.
Gregg, by contrast, had only 40 percent of his money from individual contributions when he ran for a third term in 2004
Hodes received 69 percent of his total contributions from individuals in his first run for the House in 2006, and 57 percent in 2008, though that share has bounced upward so far this year.
“If you’re receiving hundreds and hundreds or even thousands of small individual donations, that does mean that a great number of people like you so much and support you enough to actually make a donation to you,” Levinthal said.
“I think it’s really good to have an outpouring of support from individuals,” Kochvar said, “and we’ve seen that, and I think that’s a good way to start the campaign.”
Raising money from individuals could be more challenging than raising money from PACs, Levinthal said, because a lot of times PACs have already made their decisions on how to spread their money. “With individuals,” he said, “you have to try to convince them to come to your fundraisers, to write a check to you, and to give you money.”
“It’s always difficult,” Kochvar said.
Mark Bergman, the communications director of the Hodes campaign, did not respond to questions about the candidate’s fund-raising approach, saying that Hodes’ focus isn’t on raising money but “is really on working for the people in New Hampshire.”
Under the law, PACs can give a federal candidate $5,000 in each primary and general election, for a total of $10,000 per election cycle, and individuals can give $2,400 per election to a federal candidate, for a total of $4,800 per cycle.
“At the end of the day, if they receive a great deal of support from PACs, then they’re really in even stronger position than they would be if they were just receiving money from individuals, a stronger position financially speaking, at least,” Levinthal said.
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