The Downside For Dodd In Outraising His Opponents By $1 Million

Campaign fundraising numbers for the first quarter of 2009 were release a few days ago, and Chris Dodd came in with a $1.05 million haul, well ahead of his challengers (Caligiuri at about $45k and Simmons not reporting any significant fundraising). Generally when a three decade incumbent out-raises his potential challengers by a million dollars in a quarter, even if his challengers got in the race late in the reporting period, it is considered positive news and a good sign.

Not so for Chris Dodd. Even after reading this account in the Connecticut Post and follow-up from other news outlets, I though it must be a typo or some sort of misunderstanding, but I was wrong. Of his million dollars raised from nearly 400 donors, a mere $4,250 from only 5 individual donors came from Connecticut voters. That is right...only 0.4% of Dodd's cash raised came from the individuals he represents.

Rob Simmons took immediate advantage, sending out this letter to supporters and reportedly getting more in-state individual donation within minutes that Dodd managed to drum up in the first quarter.

So if it didn't come form the people Dodd represents, where did the other 99.6% of his money come from? Let's see.

• $610,000 was from individuals, $440,000 from PACs.
  
• Eighteen states and the District of Columbia yielded more cash for Dodd than his home state, including approximately $90k from individuals in Massachusetts (maybe Barney Frank is expecting reciprocation from Connecticut donors!).
• $299,000 came from executives and PACs representing banks, financial services companies and real estate brokerages, $48,000 from insurers and the heath care industry, and $62,800 from lobbyists (H/T Mother Jones).
• $44,000 came from pawnshops and other companies that make high-interest loans to those with poor credit (H/T Hartford Courant).

Why is it that only out-of-staters and financial types, yet none of his constituents, want to see Chris Dodd re-elected in Connecticut? Probably because they want something from him and won't have to live in his state themselves. As you can see, huge chunks of money came from those Dodd is supposed to be regulating rather than those he is representing. And why not? It worked for the folks in the mortgage industry for years, and it worked for the AIG executives. They all got what they wanted after making sizeable donations to previous Dodd campaigns. Just a cost of doing business in the banking industry.

Additional coverage at Hot Air, FoxNews, Heath at CT Local Politics, Ironman at The Next Right, and RadioVice Online.