[I]n the last campaign finance filing reports of 2019, Gov. Phil Scott, Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman and Attorney General TJ Donovan showed small gains in fundraising, as all three ponder gubernatorial runs in 2020.
Between Dec. 22, 2018, and the end of May 2019, Scott raised $4,500 for his gubernatorial campaign. However, the current Republican governor still has a war chest of $106,053 left over from his last campaign, according to the July 1 reports.
Scott was one of two candidates for governor to file a finance report. The other candidate is Douglas Stewart Cavett who raised $4,101 in the first five months of 2019, with the majority coming from contributions from family members in Connecticut.
Scott has said he will not decide whether he will seek another two years in office until next spring, after the 2020 legislative session.
In June, Scott told reporters that it was far too early to think about running in another election and that he was focused on the work at hand of being governor.
“It was just five or six months ago that I was sworn into office, I think I’m going to let that ride out a little longer,” said Scott at the time.
“Any decision will come after the legislative session. I think it’s just way too early,” he added.
The last time Scott officially announced he was seeking reelection — May 2018 — he also waited until after lawmakers had adjourned.
With Scott putting off his decision whether to run, some of the pressure on possible Democratic or Progressive candidates — who already have strong name recognition — to announce early has been alleviated.
Both Donovan, the Democratic attorney general, and Zuckerman, the Progressive/Democrat lieutenant governor, are both considering gubernatorial bids next year. However neither have made final decisions on possible runs.
Neither Donovan nor Zuckerman filed finance reports for gubernatorial campaigns, but they did for their current respective offices.
Former Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe, who is also seriously considering a run for governor, did not file any campaign finance reports.
Donovan raised $799 in the first half of the year, but he — similar to Scott — also has an impressive surplus from his last campaign of $227,363.
Meanwhile, between December 2018 and May 2019, Zuckerman’s lieutenant governor campaign received $960 worth of contributions — he has a much smaller surplus of $37,448 from his 2018 campaign.
The July 1 deadline for campaign finance reports was the last of 2019 for statewide offices to register contributions. The next campaign finance filing date is March 2020, when the list of candidates for governor could look much different.
