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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Brian Colón Raises $275,000+, Tops Lawrence Rael in Fundraising for 2010 Lt. Governor Race
What a start for Lt. Governor candidate Brian Colón! In fact, Brian made history of sorts by raising big funds so quickly. He also topped the total raised by his main competitor by about $130,000.
Since announcing his candidacy for Lieutenant Governor about six weeks ago on August 31, 2009, the former Democratic Party State Chair raised $277,034, including in-kind contributions totaling $12,831. He has $251,049 cash on hand as of the October 5th filing deadline. No candidate for Lieutenant Governor in recent New Mexico history has raised more than a quarter million dollars this early in the campaign, according to a statement released by Colón's campaign.
“I am humbled by the broad support our campaign received from New Mexicans in each corner of our state,” Colón said. “Folks have lined up enthusiastically behind our campaign because they share my commitment to providing high-quality education, creating new green jobs, and implementing transparency and ethics reform in government.”
Colón raised $264,203 from 667 cash contributions. The campaign averaged more than 18 donations a day and raised more than $40,000 online. Click for a copy of the report (xls) he filed with the Secretary of State today.
Colón announced his candidacy on August 31st at a kick-off fundraiser that raised more than $50,000 and was attended by more than 500 individuals.
“Our campaign continues to grow both by the number of financial supporters and by the hundreds of New Mexicans who have hit the streets to collect thousands of petition signatures from all 33 counties for filing next spring,” Colón said.
By way of comparison Colón's main rival for the Dem Lt. Governor slot on the ballot, Lawrence Rael, raised a little more than $147,000 for his campaign, despite having started his fundraising earlier in the process, ending the period with $105,000 on hand. Rep. Joe Campos raised more than $148,000, although that includes a $50,000 loan from his wife and another $50,000 loan from a bank. Campos spent almost $19,000 and ended the period with almost $130,000 on hand. Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano reported raising $11,865 and spending $7,192.50. No other Dem Lt. Gov. candidates have so far reported on their fundraising.
Of course money isn't everything in politics, but Colón's prodigious early fundraising cements the perception that he's a serious player in this race, and demonstrates that he has support all over the state. In other words, at this point in the race, Colón is the candidate to beat -- at least in terms of early fundraising, widespread appeal and just plain hard work.
October 13, 2009 at 03:59 PM in 2010 NM Lt. Governor Race, Brian Colon, Democratic Party | Permalink
Comments
Now that's some fund raising.
Posted by: Fan | Oct 13, 2009 5:00:30 PM
What a great showing! And you did it the old fashion way by the people giving. OK now we need to get signatures and start the fundraising all over!!!
Posted by: Mary Ellen | Oct 13, 2009 6:33:14 PM
Amazing. Brian's working as hard or harder at this as he did when he ran for party chair. True grit.
Posted by: Old Dem | Oct 13, 2009 6:36:23 PM
Great, great mo money. So, what is his vision for the state? What does the Lt. Gov do and what will he bring to the job? Where is his resume? Is this privileged information?
This focus on his fund raising is superficial and meaningless.
People are giving him money because they like him? Why do they like him? Is he getting the contributions because of his party affiliation? In what way does he stand for say Democratic principles?
Posted by: qofdisks | Oct 13, 2009 10:53:35 PM
Colón used the DPNM email lists to fundraise--these should be made available to all the Democratic candidates equally.
Posted by: TnT | Oct 14, 2009 7:35:47 AM
Gofdisks...I invite you to look at the utube vidoes at the top of this website. there is a link...go to the colon anounce set...you can catch some of his words about his plans and vision.
I also recommend you go to one of his events to listen first hand.
In my opinion gofdisks he is a human for the humans. that is just my opinion. Yes he was the dem party chair here and was very accountable and a good leader of our party for those years.
I think he has what it takes to be the LG. I would be interested in hearing your views. sincerely.
Posted by: Mary Ellen | Oct 14, 2009 8:04:14 AM
tnt...the lists brian knows by heart. and the lists are available to all. just brian has made a relationship with many on the "lists". just sayin'
Posted by: Mary Ellen | Oct 14, 2009 8:06:59 AM
I've listened to Brian speak several times, and to be honest, he says all the right things. The problem is, I don't know what HE believes. It's like a wind-up doll of democratic talking points. Whether or not he has real plans aside, I don't ever get any sense of what he really believes in, just what he thinks I want to hear.
And as for "wide spread appeal," well, look at their fundraising reports. 95% of every candidate's fundraising comes from Albuquerque/Santa Fe. Is that all the Dems care about? Take away the 100K that Brian got from just 4-5 individuals, and he's dead even with everyone else.
Posted by: JoeDem | Oct 14, 2009 11:00:20 AM
JoeDem I think you're mistaken. Why don't you believe him when he talks about Democratic values, equal rights for all and his support for ordinary New Mexicans. I know him and he does believe those things. Why do you think he doesn't?
Naturally most of the early donations come from where most of the money and Democrats are in the state. Campaigns will spread out now and Colon is gathering petition signatures everywhere.
You are inaccurate about the fundraising too. Look at the loans other campaigns got from themselves or banks and their in-kind donations. Colon is ahead by a mile. Rael has tapped out most of his donors already and he has little grassroots appeal to get small donations.
Posted by: Another Dem | Oct 14, 2009 12:04:46 PM
The LG has little power to direct policy but can be active in special projects like Denish has with children and jobs. Colon would be good with promoting good communications with constituents-he knows people all over the state. He works hard.
Posted by: Anon. | Oct 14, 2009 12:12:38 PM
Colon is popular because he has charisma, compassion, intellect, and values. Regardless of what public office he holds, he will serve in an honest and forthright manner.
Anyone who knows him personally has experienced his warm and caring nature. As state party chair he campaigned tirelessly for Democrats up and down the ticket.
He once skipped an opportunity to attend an event with Hilary Clinton because he previously promised to eat enchiladas with the democrats of San Juan County.
I would trust and support him for any position he chose to pursue. I highly doubt he used any lists from the Democratic Party. As party chair, he made friends in every county and community across the state. He deserves to be Lt. Governor and I hope my fellow Democrats will join me in supporting him.
Posted by: William Nie | Oct 14, 2009 1:26:41 PM
I agree with a few others who have posted. Colon says what people want to hear but when asked why folks should vote for him he just talked about the LG office. I know he wants to be LG, I just don't know why and he hasn't been able to explain what he will get done in the position.
Clearly he likes to talk to people and is always willing to shake a hand but there doesn't seem to be much more there. The 2008 primary was a joke. Badly managed from start to finish.
Posted by: oldhat | Oct 14, 2009 3:57:15 PM
Great discussion. We need to do more discussion of candidates on the blogs.
Thanks for your endorsement Mary Ellen. I will take the time to download the utubes above.
Thanks for the non-endorsements also because this gives the candidate an opportunity to fine tune his campaign. Minds can be changed.
Let's keep up the discussions. Substantive discussions are very difficult because the crazy media is looking for one slip up or mistake for an excuse to tear a candidate up. Candidates have to constantly be fearful of what they say but, we can judge them by their actions and those bearing truthful witness of those actions.
For example, I had my doubts about Teague. But, I heard about how he cared and took care of his employees and their families. I heard about his integrity and how he succeeded by his very hard work. This was enough to convince me that he was the right person to be our representative to congress.
Posted by: qofdisks | Oct 14, 2009 4:39:29 PM
I wonder if people are asking these same questions of the other candidates for LG. Why does Joe Campos want to be LG and what does he stand for? Does he follow the Catholic Church on gay issues? What about Lawrence Rael? He has nowhere else to go does he? He has followed orders all his life. Why should we see him as a leader?
Linda Lopez' biggest donor by far is Westland Development. Does that qualify her for LG? Jerry Ortiz y Pino has many good ideas but he isn't running a real campaign.
Discussions like these can be good but we need to realize campaign people often post with an axe to grind.
Posted by: Being Fair | Oct 14, 2009 5:38:28 PM
I don't know him, perhaps he does believe those things. It just doesn't come across as genuine when he hits 378 different democratic talking points in every sentence.
I'm not mistaken on the fundraising. First of all, I don't know how you can speak for what fundraising targets the other candidates might have. Brian's obviously hit the lawyers pretty hard; perhaps he's tapped out. And while I agree he's ahead of everyone except for Rael, those two are pretty much even except for 100K Brian got from just 5 individuals (which that alone concerns me. Why would anyone give that much without expecting some return on their investment?). If he had such broad appeal, why are he and two other candidates neck-and-neck discounting several unseemly donations? Heck, if Brian got donations from 600 people, and had 500 people come to his kickoff, then his rate of donations slowed WAY down.
Colon did a very impressive fundraising number, but last I checked, that shouldn't decide the winner. Frankly, given his performance in the 2008 primary, I'm skeptical of his organizational skills, which is probably one of the most important skills in that position. I'll wait and see what plans all of the candidates come out with. How do any of them plan to deal with the budget? Education? Etc? In the meantime, I'm just bugged by this blog's annointing him as THE candidate based on money when no one knows any of the candidates plans yet.
Posted by: JoeDem | Oct 14, 2009 7:26:08 PM
Colon still has the stink of the DNC caucus debacle. His incompetence made us a laughing stock. And the smell on him from all the other stuff will get all over us. Colon is an embarrassment.
Posted by: True Blue | Oct 14, 2009 8:30:59 PM
@JoeDem: It's true that Colon's top 5 donors gave his LG campaign $75K. What did Rael's top 5 give? I'm the first to argue for campaign contribution limits, including a complete ban on corporate money. However, candidates rarely win who cripple themselves from the start with a lack of money or by restricting themselves when others don't. The fact is, Brian Colon knows how to raise money, which was as good for the Democratic Party as it is for his campaign. Are there a lot of lawyers on the list? Sure there are! Any competent fundraiser starts with the people who are closest to him or her. It's Campaign 101. Either Colon is better at it than Rael and Campos, which I don't doubt, or he has more friends with more money to give him, or both. If you take a completely cynical view, you could say that more people want to buy him and are willing to pay more for the privilege! But doesn't that mean just about the same thing at this point in the campaign??
More people by far are taking Colon seriously than his 2 closest rivals, and 87% of them gave $500 or less. The man has been busy, and that bodes very well for his campaign. 408 people donated $100 or less to Brian's campaign, for a total of ~$30K. 183 more donations of $100-500, and 42 more in the $501-1000 range for a total of ~$127K in donations of $1000 or less. If Colon's donations were limited to $2500 or less, he would still have raised more than Rael or Campos, (~$164K) even including Campos' $100K in loans. I just can't take a candidate seriously who loans himself twice as much money than he can raise.
Finally, as somebody who actually worked the caucus in February 2008, I take a completely different lesson from the experience. Brian Colon's organizational skills, along with a lot of hard work from a few staff and a lot of dedicated volunteers, were the only things that made the caucus anything but a complete screw up. And despite the long waits in a few places, Brian Colon successfully ran an election on a shoestring, and he personally made certain that every valid vote was counted. The worst problems were beyond his personal control, but he took responsibility for them, as he had to. Brian earned my support by his conduct of the caucus, as well as by his incredibly successful leadership of the fractious herd of cats we call the Democratic Party of New Mexico. I am proud to support and endorse him for the office of Lieutenant Governor.
Donald F. Schiff
DPBC Ward 18B chair
Posted by: Proud Democrat | Oct 14, 2009 9:51:45 PM
I'm not surprised at all that Brian is able to raise so much money. He didn't do Big Bill's dirty laundry for free, after all...
I wonder if he still refuses to answer questions about his role as treasurer for Bill's "charity"?
Posted by: oh please | Oct 15, 2009 9:08:09 AM
I see the trolls from other campaigns are out spreading lies and trying to smear Colon. Sorry, many of us know him and believe he is a principled, honest, hard-working candidate who rose above the poverty he was raised in and cares deeply about the needs of the people.
The caucus people are complaining about was underfunded. Only a couple polling places had problems. One was in Sandoval County and was due to mistakes by the county chair. The counting took a long time because so many voters didn't know what they were doing and had to vote by provisional ballots that had to be hand counted. Colon insisted that every vote be counted so it took a long time. Would you rather he threw the votes out?
Posted by: pct chair | Oct 15, 2009 10:15:18 AM
that is true pct chair. It makes me cringe to hear a hint of the fighting that went on in the mayorial race. I wish we could "all get along".
Posted by: Mary Ellen | Oct 15, 2009 1:09:54 PM
