From the Norwich Bulletin:
Sean Sullivan admits his first Federal Elections Commission report to be filed in two weeks won’t make many people stand up and take notice of his candidacy.The presumptive Republican congressional candidate in Connecticut’s 2nd District said this week he’ll likely report between $25,000 and $30,000 raised since entering the race in early April. Those numbers will pale in comparison to incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney’s, D-2nd District, filing, which should show the freshman lawmaker well past the $500,000 mark.
So Sullivan, a guy who has been touted as a potentially strong recruit to Courtney, couldn’t crack the $30,000 mark in the first full three months of his campaign. Meanwhile, Courtney reportedly pulls in over $500K in the second quarter, which will add nicely to the $380K cash-on-hand he reported in his April filings. Does Sullivan have a clue?
With no previous political experience, Sullivan said he has spent much of the first three months of his candidacy simply learning how to run a campaign.“I’ve been educating myself on what needs to be done,” he said. “I’ve talked with the folks at the Republican National Congressional Committee in Washington. I’ve been talking with (former Congressman) Rob (Simmons) and a number of others, including Chris Healy, who have in the past played a major role in Rob’s past campaigns.”
Sullivan chuckled at the advice national party officials gave him.
“They told me I needed to raise $1 million by the end of the year,” he said. “Raising $100,000 might be more realistic, like Rob did when he first challenged (former Congressman) Sam Gejdenson. But the bottom line, before I can expect any significant help from the party, national or state, I first have to prove myself.” (emphasis added)
Proving yourself, in the bare-knuckle world of congressional politics, would include the ability to raise the necessary funds to display viability, Sean. And I love the laff-and-a-haff line about raising $100K before the year is over. Yup, that kind of talk will definitely inspire the decision-makers over at the NRCC.
It’s got to be incredibly dispiriting for many potential GOP candidates to be facing supposedly vulnerable freshmen who are on pace to raise $1 million or more in their first year in the House, as the DCCC is pressuring its freshmen members to do. And because fundraising superiority has always been one of the ways Republicans have won, it puts them at an even huger disadvantage than Democrats would have been in the reverse situation.
(Hat tip: Connecticut Local Politics)
This is a strong Democratic district(D+8) and the NRCC is already wasting money attacking “the real Joe Courtney”. The only Republican who had any chance at all was Rob Simmons and he isn’t running. I expect Courtney will win by at least 15 points.
Thinks his circumstances will be anything like Simmons’ was when he beat Sam G., then he’s delusional. This district went for Kerry by 10 points. I predict it’ll go for whoever out nominee is by an even bigger margin. Underfunded challengers can defeat incumbents in certain years. Barring an extremely unlikely series of unfortunate events, 2008 won’t be one of those for Republicans.
I originally predicted a rematch that would start another barn burner. Once that fell out, I was still worried about some moderate GOP lawmaker running for the district and raising lots of money. That’s not going to happen though. It’s relieving, one less seat to defend. Of course, I was sure Courtney would win by 20 percentage points the moment I saw some of Sullivans ideas. The guys running on a fearmongering national security campaign. He’s a complete wingnut, I mean there’s nothing remotely moderate about this guy, and he’s not running in Georgia, or a district with even the smallest Republican lean, he’s running in a moderate minded, but strongly Democratic leaning district. He’s going to throw off about ten percent of the the people who voted for Simmons last year. Lets applaud Republicans. Democrats might just make history again by finally breaking the curse of losing seats after a big ‘wave’ election, like parties always do. If republicans keep blowing strong chances to challenge Democratic freshman while their weak, and losing chances to divert Democratic resources, then we might even take the offense again. Afterall, we’ve had more success than they’ve had. State Sen. John Bocceri against Regula, former KSC Mayor Kay Barnes in MO-07, State Sen. John Unger in WV-02, and State Rep. and State House Minority leader Steve Dreihaus in OH-01, oh and don’t forget former State Sen. Jim Berryman against complete Fundamentalist crusader Tim Wahlberg in Michigan. That guy makes Sekula-Gibbs look sane, he makes Bill Sali look good. He’s got so many negatives and different issues and events dragging him down, with money Berryman would crush, despite from Cqpolitics says, plus he’ not that great of a campaigner.