Fundraising Numbers show Challengers with Less Available Cash

All of Iowa's incumbents for federal office held distinct financial advantages, reports from the second quarter show.  While not all current lawmakers raised more funds than their challengers, all has significantly more money available for their campaigns.  In many cases, challengers had more recently spent campaign funds in primary battles across the state.

For U.S. Senate, Democratic candidate Roxanne Conlin raised $643,895 compared to Republican Senator Charles Grassley's $630,430 during the second quarter.  However, Conlin had only $851,014 in reserve, which is only slightly more than a seventh of Grassley's $5.7 million warchest.  The Conlin campaign was also quick to point out that no funds had been raised from federal lobbyists and that 81 percent of the money raised was from Iowans.  The Democrat's campaign also received 81 percent percent of donations in amounts of $100 or less.

Iowa's other representatives in U.S. Congress all held advantages over their challengers.  First District Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley raised slightly less than his Republican challenger, Ben Lange, during the second quarter.  Braley has almost six times the amount of available cash on hand than Lange does.

In the Second District, Democratic U.S. Representative Dave Loebsack raised nearly twice as much as his Republican nominee Mariannette Miller-Meeks between 1 April and 30 June.  Loebsack also enjoyed five times as much cash in the bank as Miller-Meeks, who had to fight in a four-way primary.

Third District Democratic Representative Leonard Boswell out-raised his opponent, Brad Zaun (who just survived a crowded primary field), and also has more than seven times the cash available than the same measure for Zaun.

In the Fourth and Fifth districts, Republican Tom Latham had $755,832 in the bank compared to Democratic challenger Bill Maske's $16,328, and Representative Steve King had $309,154 on hand compared to Democrat Matt Campbell's $22,673 in available money.