With the exception of Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, no Republicans or Progressives have raised money for statewide office races.
Meanwhile, a conservative Super PAC has more than $100,000 banked for the next election cycle.
March 17 was the deadline for filing the first campaign finance reports for this election season. Only incumbent Democrats who now hold statewide seats have filed reports, which are now posted on the Vermont Secretary of State’s website.
Gov. Peter Shumlin reported $320,000 in new contributions since July 16, 2013. He has more than $1 million in cash for the 2014 election, and at this point, the two-term incumbent has no challenger. In 2011-2012, the governor spent $345,000 to win re-election in a bid against Republican challenger Randy Brock, a former state senator who spent more than double that amount.
Scott has $5,585 in the bank. Doug Hoffer, the state auditor, who ran on the Progressive and Democratic tickets last time, has $296 in hand. State Treasurer Beth Pearce, a Democrat, raised $17,000 over the last nine months and spent about $8,200 in the same period. Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell, another Dem, raised $25,800 and spent $2,230. Jim Condos, secretary of state, brought in $101 between July 16 and March 17.
Republicans have said they will focus on regaining seats in the House and Senate this year.
Vermonters First, a conservative Super PAC funded by Lenore Broughton, reports $103,000 in cash. In the last election cycle, Broughton gave the Super PAC $1 million for independent expenditures on media buys, campaign mailings and the like. None of the statewide candidates who were indirectly supported by the media blitz won office.
The state’s new campaign finance law, which went into effect last month, includes an additional March reporting period in an election year. Prior to the passage of S.82, the first reporting period was July 15.
The campaign finance reports are downloaded in Microsoft Excel, printed on paper spreadsheets, and then scanned and uploaded to the secretary of state’s website.
Condos hopes to digitize the reporting system in July.
VTDigger will be entering the 2014 data (including March) into the media outlet’s searchable campaign finance database — the first of its kind in Vermont — this week. We will make an announcement when information from the latest reporting period has been uploaded.
