Looking at the Numbers

The Iowa Democratic Party is touting the fact that they outraised the Republican Party of Iowa in the first quarter.  Ok, so what?

Considering that say Jim Gibbons is outraising all of the Iowa Third District congressional candidates including incumbent Congressman Leonard Boswell.  It is pretty clear that Congressman Boswell is in trouble.  Rob Gettemy has plenty of cash on hand within Iowa’s Second District race.

Looking at the Iowa gubernatorial campaign with former Governor Terry Branstad’s fundraising numbers doesn’t exactly cause concern either.  Governor Chet Culver’s numbers are bolstered by a lot of PAC and party donations so his fundraising isn’t as impressive as it seems.

Then also consider the GOP’s primary candidates with funding being interspersed among many different candidates – that’s also a factor.  I would suspect that RPI’s fundraising numbers will go up after June 8th.

Then there’s this to consider – Republican candidates nationally have outraised their Democratic rivals.  So if I were Iowa Democrats I wouldn’t get too terribly excited.