The MSM should be covering the reports for the major candidates, so I’ll concentrate on our down ballot candidates here in southwest Minnesota for now. From the reports and talking with our DFL candidates it looks like they all have surpassed the threshold of individual contributions to qualify for public funding.
In 16A GOP incumbent Swedinski has, as usual, $28,846 cash on hand while DFL challenger Tom Wyatt-Yerka’s report isn’t in yet. Tom’s a busy working guy so most likely he’s just trying to catch up. In 16B GOP incumbent Torkelson thanks to nearly $2000 in lobbyist dollars has $17,355 on hand while DFL Challenger Marinda Kimmel has $11,123 cash on hand.
In 22A GOP incumbent Schomacker still hasn’t filed… He’s been rather scarce on the campaign trail, so has he abandoned his campaign? DFL endorsed (by a huge margin) Kaufman has $5,240 cash on hand and a gadfly Green/DFL primary challenger has $0 on hand. In 22B incumbent GOPer Hamilton struggles with fund raising and sexual harassment charges with only $9,529 on hand. DFL Challenger Cheniqua Johnson has $10,873 on hand, almost all of that came in small individual donations!
This is incredibly good news for our downballot DFL candidates, with many of our candidates on their way to setting DFL fundraising records for their districts. In 22A DFLer Kaufman may be headed to an upset victory thanks to GOP incumbent Schomacker’s lazy filing and campaigning… This is why we need to contest every election! So while the state DFL leadership is busy disciplining DFLers, down ballot we’re busy winning elections!
Hope to report later tonight on the internals of state party finances, especially subsidizing of weak endorsed candidates by both state parties…
Sassy Democrat 