Congressional Money Picture Starts to Take Shape

Campaign finance numbers are starting to pour in and the Arizona Globe will be poring through them with the eagerness of a fat kid on Twinkie Day.

A couple early takeaways:

• CD1: Congressman David Schweikert is sitting on an impressive-but-not-overwhelming $1,644,137 cash on hand. He raised $636,177 in Q4 from individuals, $652,430 from committees, and added those to the $350,505 he already had. Gonna be a battle there in November, and Team Schweikert seems like they’re up to the task.

• CD3: Interesting money coming in to AZ3, where several candidates are vying to replace Senate hopeful Ruben Gallego in the safe blue seat. Three candidates broke six figures. The money leader is Yassamin Ansari, who seems able to parlay her spot on the Phoenix City Council into generosity for her Congressional run. She put up $1,074,891 in total receipts, but also spent a lot ($330,907) on various consultants including ASP Media, the same NYC firm she’s used for her City Council runs, plus Zaragoza and Spiros Consulting.

Raquel Terán, the former Minority Leader of the Arizona Senate, raised $638,210. That would be a great total were it not dwarfed by Ansari’s haul. Teran also spent almost half her raise — $302,830 in disbursements. It’ll be tough for Terán to keep pace if she spends as much as Ansari while raising only half as much.

And speaking of spending … Councilwoman Laura Pastor raised $121,783 and dished out almost 80% of it ($95,305).

• CD4: Incumbent Greg Stanton raised $1,197,934, including $855,737 from individuals. Committees threw in $313,150. Those are healthy numbers, but Stanton also spent $487,248, which is a lot for an incumbent a year out. That could signal the Democrat is taking seriously the challenge he may face in November from whoever becomes the Republican nominee.

On that side, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser led the GOPers, taking in $264,375, including $10,000 from Robert and June Shillman and even more from Edward and Leann Basha (donors can give up to $6600 max each if their contribution is capped at $3300 for the primary and another $3300 for the general).

The 2022 Republican nominee, Kelly Cooper, is running again. Cooper has raised a total of $214,212 so far, which includes a $13,155 rollover from 2022 plus a $50,000 loan from the candidate. He raised just shy of $52,000 in Q4.

• CD8: Hopeful Blake Masters posted an impressive total raise of $1,163,223. He’s a wealthy fellow, and if he can continue to lend his campaign seven-figure totals, he’ll have money to drive a message. But a closer look reveals that a cool million of that came via a loan from the candidate himself. Another $88,000 came from funds left over from Masters’ 2022 Senate run. Only $70,723 was raised during Q4 from ordinary donors, including people like Stuart Shoen and Nicholas Tomaino ($3300 each). Nothing too interesting in expenditures — list rental, fees from Winred, the usual.

Ben Toma‘s $340,083 is less than a third of Blake’s number, but it includes $314,083 in actual money raised, making the Speaker the leader in actual fundraising.

Similarly, Abe Hamadeh reported $287,526 in total receipts, $272,356 of which came from actual people who write checks to the campaign. Including three grand each from Marguerite Cullinan, Michael Cullinan, and Frank Dimaggio.

Anthony Kern also broke six figures—his $115,040 makes it clear he’s taking the race seriously. In contrast to former Congressman Trent Franks, who didn’t file yet.