McAuliffe leading Cuccinelli in fundraising for Virginia governors race

In April and May, the Democrat raised $3.7 million to Ken Cuccinelli's $2.2 million.

Terry McAuliffe

Ken Cuccinelli

David Ress | 981-3253

Monday, June 3, 2013

In the race for money, Democrat Terry McAuliffe is continuing to outpace Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in the contest to be Virginia’s next governor.

Both are drawing big money from their national parties, their campaign finance reports for April and May show. Monday was the filing deadline.

McAuliffe raised $3.7 million in April and May — 72 percent more than Cuccinelli’s $2.2 million, according to the campaign finance reports compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project.

McAuliffe’s total included $2 million from the Democratic Governor s Association. Cuccinelli got $1 million from the Republican Governors Association, his second such payment from that group.

Cuccinelli’s lagging fundraising may be signalling a continuation of a pattern seen in his earlier financial report of slowing contributions from Virginia businesses, said Quentin Kidd, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University in Newport News.

“That’s really the problem Cuccinelli is having,” Kidd said. “This is two in a row.”

McAuliffe on Monday announced endorsements from two prominent Republicans, former national committee finance chairman Dwight Schar and Earle Williams, who ran for the GOP nomination to be governor in 1993.

Meanwhile, one of the state’s biggest corporate players, the Richmond-based cigarette-maker Altria, hedged its bets with $25,000 donations to each of the campaigns.

Cuccinelli did win large donations from two coal companies, while Peter Angelos, the lawyer who is majority owner of the Baltimore Orioles, gave $250,000 to McAuliffe’s campaign.

Both candidates will need large war chests to deal with their most important challenge: Many voters know little about either, and of those who do, many have negative views, Kidd said.

“If you’re a relative unknown, you’ve got to find a way into the living rooms of voters and you’ve got to find a way into the political minds of voters, and that takes money,” Kidd said.

Monday, August 12, 2013