Just two and a half weeks before the General Election, campaign finance reports for Vermont’s gubernatorial race show that Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie has raised less than half the amount of money his rival, Democrat Sen. Peter Shumlin, has in the last 30 days.
Dubie brought in $172,000, while Shumlin received $490,000 in contributions in the last month.
Dubie remains ahead in overall donations. He raised a total of $1.36 million in the last filing, and he has $231,000 on hand, according to his campaign. He has spent $1.073 million so far.
Shumlin’s contributions totaled $1.14 million as of Oct. 15, and he has spent $910,000. He has $207,000 in cash, his campaign says.
According to filings with the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office, the two gubernatorial candidates have raised a total of more than $1 million each — and they have blown most of the money they have brought in. Together, they have spent nearly $2 million.
Meanwhile, outside organizations spending money on behalf of both candidates have also raised substantially more money. Most of the expenditures have been on TV advertising.
Green Mountain Prosperity, a political action committee formed by the Republican Governors Association, has raised a total of $525,000 for Dubie and spent $259,000.
The Democratic Governors Association Vermont-PAC has raised a total of $218,517 and spent $90,487 on behalf of Shumlin.
Green Mountain Future, a newly formed 527 nonprofit, has collected $533,955 in contributions, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Of that, $513,855 comes from the Democratic Governors Association. The 527 has been running a series of negative ads regarding Dubie’s support for Vermont Yankee.
Download Green Mountain Future Form 8872 IRS
All Earth Renewables, a company owned by David Blittersdorf, gave the organization $20,000. Blittersdorf has given $8,000 in donations to Shumlin’s campaign through various entities. Shumlin appointed Blittersdorf to the state’s Clean Energy Development Fund last year before Shumlin decided to run for governor. In July, the Associated Press reported that Blittersdorf’s companies received $4.3 million in state tax credits through the CEDF.
Green Mountain Future gave $253,006 to Great American Media for four separate ad buys costing between $63,000 and $64,000 each. The nonprofit paid $50,000 to VShift, for Web site services and advertising. Green Mountain spent $7,826 on Grunwald Communications, a PR and messaging company based in Bethesda, Md., and $33,235 on mailings. In addition, the DGA donated in-kind “research” services worth $63,855 to Green Mountain Future.
Total spent?
The candidates have paid out $1.98 million so far for advertising, campaign payroll expenses, mailings, Web site development and research.
Their surrogates have spent about $1 million so far.
Here is a rundown of the totals:
For Shumlin
Democratic Governors Association – Vermont PAC. Total cash: $218,517.
Spent: $90,487
Green Mountain Future. Total cash: $533,955. Spent: $429,186
For Dubie
Republican Governors Association. Spent: $216,186
Green Mountain Prosperity, Republican Governors Association PAC. Total cash: $525,642. Spent: $259,282.
Oct. 15 was the last campaign finance reporting deadline before the General Election. Voters won’t know what was spent between Oct. 13 and Nov. 2 until the next deadline – Nov. 15.
The Democratic gubernatorial primary cost $1.86 million. In all, nearly $5 million has been spent on the governor’s race so far.