Lasry, Godlewski Spend Heavily on Campaigns
Barnes far ahead of all Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate in donations from others in last quarter.
Two of the leading Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate made significant personal loans to their campaigns last year in their bids to defeat incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.
But when looking only at contributions from donors other than the candidates last quarter, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes was the leading fundraiser in the Democratic field.
Lasry and Godlewski face Barnes and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson among others in the Democratic primary for Senate. Neither Barnes nor Nelson have reported any loans to their campaigns.
Barnes led the field in contributions from individual donors in the last quarter, pulling in more than $1.2 million from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Lasry raised roughly $473,000 from individual donors in the same period, followed by Godlewski who raised more than $364,000 and Nelson who raised roughly $216,000.
Anthony Chergosky, an associate professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, said fundraising is especially important in a primary campaign because voters are still forming opinions of the candidates. Given that, he said he wasn’t surprised to see Lasry and Godlewski contribute to their own races.
When looking at all contributions to the candidates — including personal loans — since the campaign cycle began, Godlewski had raised almost $3 million, Lasry about $5.1 million, Barnes about $2.4 million and Nelson almost $1.2 million.
When looking strictly at how much cash each of the campaigns had on hand at the end of last year, Godlewski reported $1.3 million, Lasry $1.1 million, Barnes $1.1 million and Nelson about $484,000.
Johnson, who officially announced his reelection campaign on Jan. 9, raised about $906,000 in the final quarter of 2021 and has raised about $4.3 million since the current cycle began. He reported roughly $2.3 million cash on hand. Taken as a whole, each of those numbers trailed the Democratic field.
Johnson has said he won’t put his own money into this campaign, but self-funding helped him get his start in politics. In 2010, Johnson spent roughly $9 million of his own money on his campaign against former Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold.
Listen to the WPR report here.
Alex Lasry, Sarah Godlewski spend personal funds in Democratic US Senate primary was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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- Lasry, Godlewski Spend Heavily on Campaigns - Shawn Johnson - Feb 2nd, 2022
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I could NEVER vote for someone who consistently does not vote.