April 27, 2005

Fuzzy Math

In the race for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat coming vacant after 2006, former U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary has claimed to be the leader in fundraising. Ah, but he's using fuzzy math, says Blogging For Bryant:

According to his report 57 individual contributors have already maxed out -- meaning they contributed $4000 to the Hilleary campaign. Federal election law will only allow an individual to contribute $2000 toward the primary and $2000 toward the general, so if Hilleary spends any of the money alotted for the general during the primary and loses, he must reimburse his contributors. That takes $121,400 off the table for Hilleary in the GOP primary, leaving his campaign with $265,608 to work with. At the rate Hilleary's campaign is burning money - an average of $9000 a week during the 1Q - he's going to need to pick up his fundraising pace drastically to be competitive.

By the way, if you add Hilleary's primary and general-election votes together from the 2002 governor's race, he actually beat Phil Bredesen's general election tally!

UPDATE: Jay Bush from Blogging for Bryant has clarified the $121,400 figure, and he was right - that's how much of Hilleary's over-hyped fundraising isn't actually available for him to spend until after the primary.