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CA15: Swalwell’s & Corbett’s Q1 fundraising

Posted on by Josh Richman

Rep. Eric Swalwell raised more than eight times as much as his challenger and fellow Democrat state Sen. Ellen Corbett in this year’s first quarter, and had about four and a half times as much money banked as of March 31, according to new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Meanwhile, a Republican who got into this 15th Congressional District race at the last minute is funded only by himself and by one of the state’s biggest GOP benefactors.

Swalwell, D-Dublin, raised $272,783.87 from Jan. 1 through March 31, and at the end of that period had $922,581.82 cash on hand with $6,859.82 in outstanding debt. Corbett in the same time raised $32,485.33, finishing with $208,005.35 cash on hand and $6,000 in debt; that’s right about where Corbett was at the end of 2014, though she had raised almost three times as much in last year’s final quarter.

Hugh Bussell, a GOP county committeeman from Livermore, lent his campaign $1,750 and took a $2,400 contribution from Charles Munger Jr. of Palo Alto, chairman of the Santa Clara County GOP and a prolific contributor to the party’s causes and candidates.

Josh Richman

Josh Richman covers state and national politics for the Bay Area News Group. A New York City native, he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and reported for the Express-Times of Easton, Pa. for five years before coming to the Oakland Tribune and ANG Newspapers in 1997. He is a frequent guest on KQED Channel 9’s “This Week in Northern California;” a proud father; an Eagle Scout; a somewhat skilled player of low-stakes poker; a rather good cook; a firm believer in the use of semicolons; and an unabashed political junkie who will never, EVER seek elected office.

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  • RRSenileColumnist

    Corbett hasn’t given voters a single good reason to throw out Swalwell.

  • Willis James

    Corbett needs to spend every cent in the primary.
    If she can’t beat him in the primary, what hope is there in November, when more conservative voters will only have the two choices.
    She has two months to make a great impression.

    It will be a sad Sept. and October, to see her slogging it out without any hope. Who would kick in money for that slim to nothing chance.
    Had she run against Stark, she’d be a member of congress right now.

  • Marga

    CISPA

  • RRSenileColumnist

    Marga: if u think the ACLU is a better judge of the nation’s security needs than Congress, better start building your bunker

  • Guest

    State Senator Corbett’s is getting a lot of money from these big Sacramento labor unions, the ones that were big backers of State Senator Leland Yee. In fact, she seems to be getting much of her money from these sources! Looks like these disgruntled Sacramento labor unions are still mad at Eric Swalwell for taking out the left wing Pete Stark. Swalwell more moderate, he’s pro-labor – he still has a lot of labor support – but he listens to business leaders, high tech workers, and small business community too. That’s good. They are all voters too, got stake in California’s future. I recall Pete Stark was so left-wing he though local chamber of commerces were subversive groups, Stark wouldn’t deem to even meet with them! The fact that Swalwell is trouncing Corbett on fundraising sort of tells you he has broad based support, Corbett’s support seems to revolve around these disgruntled labor unions. Elect Corbett you will get a house member who takes orders from powerful labor leaders, with Eric Swalwell you get a house members who listens to everybody, and then does what he things is best for his constituents.

  • JohnW

    Swalwell seems to be doing a fairly good job of channeling his mentor, Ellen Tauscher. I’ll vote for him this time around. However, I would feel better about it if he and his team showed a little bit of love for the San Ramon part of the district.

  • Elwood

    What RR said!

  • Oh please.

  • Part of the challenge, @disqus_4V0mPDYcJZ:disqus, for Congressman Swalwell and his team is how wide the District is — as you no doubt know — spanning from Livermore in the east to an almost hour drive to Fremont in the west. As a result, Hayward + Union City + Castro Valley + Fremont receive probably a slightly disproportionate amount of attention from Rep. Swalwell, even compared to Dublin + Livermore + Pleasanton + San Ramon + Sunol + Danville (really just Crow Canyon Country Club).

    However, I bet if you knew of events that Congressman Swalwell could attend in San Ramon, you probably could call his office and just tell them about the events — bet he shows up!

  • Marga

    It’s a major reason. Swalwell has shown he has no respect for the right to privacy. Sure, he got on the anti-NSA bandwagon when it looked clear that supporting the NSA would cost him, but before that he was ready to let the federal government and private industry spy on us without any consequences.

    And there is more. Swalwell has made it clear he does not believe atheists have a place in American democracy. He has supported the use of drones. And basically, he has done nothing to make anyone believe that he would protect constitutional rights.

    Now, Corbett might not be a stellar defender of human rights, but she hasn’t voted to restrict them either. And I’m confident that if she’s elected, she won’t be voting like Pelosi tells her to the way Swalwell has.

  • Marga

    Or, to be more exact, Swalwell’s strategy for the last year was to gain Democratic support in the very democratic parts of the district that did not vote for him: Hayward, Union City and Fremont, and consolidate it in Castro Valley. He felt confident that the conservative tri-valley would stick with him in a race against Corbett. It’s a logical strategy and I don’t think you can fault him for it. It’s likely to work.

  • Marga

    It sounds like you are the ones who need to build it. People who are afraid of their own shadow. I’m not 🙂

  • For once, @SLtalk:disqus, we agree!

  • The atheist and CISPA attacks are pure bunk.

  • Marga

    How so? He voted in favor of CISPA, he did say that Stark should not be in Congress because of his non-theistic values. Unless by “bunk” you mean, “the pure truth”. I’ve heard of doublespeak before 🙂

  • JohnW

    I totally get the political strategy. Would do the same if I were Swalwell. It’s just unfortunate that San Ramon had to be tacked on to fill out what is essentially an Alameda County district.

  • Marga

    But does the county really matter that much? And at least San Ramon stayed together as one city. They wanted to cut San Leandro in two, which would have destroyed any chance anyone from here would have to run for higher office. We made lots of noise and they kept us together, but they connected us with Oakland and Alameda. We fit better with Hayward, I think.

  • JohnW

    Matters to me. I live in the annexed NE section of SR. Much more in common with Danville and Blackhawk than Dublin or the western part of the district. Just as you protested about splitting San Leandro (that would have been bad), SR city officials protested (unsuccessfully) about not being kept in Contra Costa County.

    Not criticizing the redistricting people. They did the best they could.

  • If she can’t defeat him in the main, what wish is there in Nov, when more traditional voters will only have the two options.

  • Elwood

    This is spam.

  • JohnW

    Good catch. Thanks for heads up.