Boyda's FEC Shows Cash-on-Hand Lead

Congresswoman Nancy Boyda:

Beginning of Period: $890,452.80
Raised: $302,292.85
Disbursements: $570,414.76
Cash-on-Hand: $622,330.89

Itemized Contributions: $141,749
Unitemized Contributions: $41,711.08
PAC Contributions: $112,060.80
Other: $6,411.94

A much better number for Boyda when it comes to small dollar donations. While we aren't done with our full breakdown of both reports, it looks like both woman got the vast majority of their donations from Kansas. It also looks like that without her would-be fundraiser with President George W. Bush, Lynn Jenkins fundraising for the quarter would have been cut in about half- more on that later!

Oh, one other point- the very, very most important point going into the home stretch: Congresswoman Nancy Boyda still has more cash on hand than Lynn Jenkins, which means she's got more in the bank to use to get her message out in these last critical weeks.

Also, can we say one other thing: Jenkins raised a fabulous amount, that is undeniable, but that comes at a cost to both her campaign and the voters of Kansas. To raise this money, she scheduled a fundraiser with one of the least popular presidents in American history- and got hundreds of thousands of dollars from people who wanted to come and see him and who would, one would expect, like to see his policies continued.

The other problems is, in order to raise to much cash, Lynn Jenkins would have had to locked herself in a small, dark room with a telephone and a computer and made fundraising phone calls for hours upon hours. While that's certainly just part of the game, it prevented her from talking to voters, and from doing the job she currently has (which has been evidenced in recent days with more revelations she's ignoring her duties at the treasurer's office). It's a trade off- she did the only thing she could do to stay even kind of viable in her race, but tied herself to a deeply unpopular president and his deeply unpopular policies, and she ignored her current jobs and the voters of the 2nd District.

We'll see if it pays off in the end.