Federal Election Commission First Quarter 2017 financial reports are in and, to no one’s surprise, Rep. Darryl Issa leads a three man race with $367,072 raised and more than a half million cash on hand with $522,210.
The big surprise is environmental lawyer Mike Levin, who jumped into the fray late winter, has more than doubled the amount of money raised by Doug Applegate. Levin’s raised more than a quarter million dollars in juts a few weeks — $283,457 to be exact. And he has $264,221 cash on hand.
Applegate, who lost to Issa by 1,600 votes in November and announced a new campaign almost immediately, raised $117,080 for the quarter and has just $92,475 cash on hand — considerably better results than his pre-primary 2016 campaign but way behind Levin. See the Tweet below.
Funds raised by Democratic challengers far surpass what Issa has raised but Issa remains the richest man in Congress and can open a financial spigot if he really needs to.
| 4/15/17, 1:40 PM
#CA49 FEC Q1 Raised/COH @DarrellIssa $367,072, $522,210 @MikeLevinCA $283,457, $264,221 @ApplegateCA49 $117,080, $92,475 pic.twitter.com/5h9nRxqt05 |
The race is not about Levin vs. Applegate. Its about a Democratic candidate versus Issa. Whichever Democratic candidate emerges as the challenger to Issa in November 2018, the odd man out needs to throw full support behind the Democratic challenger against Issa to flip this seat.