The fundraising prowess of Mayor Joe Ganim’s three Democratic opponents will become clearer in the days ahead as they put on a final push for the second quarter financial filing that ends June 30.
Ganim isn’t taking anything for granted. He’s hosting a large-donor event at Joseph’s Steakhouse Downtown on Thursday.
As of the first quarter filing ending March 31, John Gomes had raised a mighty $200k, with roughly half that amount on hand while State Senator Marilyn Moore and Lamond Daniels had raised roughly $65-70K respectively.
Ganim had raised more than $300K as of the first quarter so he should be on the precipice of $400K raised for the next filing.
Do the various opponent camps maintain the same pace, or do they hit a wall? Also, how much and where did they allocate resources the past few months?
The first two calendar quarters are key because the financial staying power allows the opponents to tee up the necessary infrastructure to compete and that includes qualifying for a September primary via the signature route that will start the day after Ganim’s party endorsement late July.
The signature process is both labor intensive and financially taxing scouring more than 2,000 verifiable signatures of Democratic electors.
The Ganim campaign is also hosting a headquarters grand opening Saturday morning at 11, 930 Main Street Downtown across from McLevy Green.
This is July 4th weekend, then the real fireworks begin during the gut of primary season.
RUMOR MILL:
Let’s get political —
If Lamond Daniels secured Ned Lamont’s endorsement, we’d see lots of signs that said:
Lamont for Lamond
and Ned Daniels might become a synonym for Bridgeport’s new partnership.
Lennie, you make it sound as if we should expect to see campaign headquarters getting firebombed. Those were the good old days.