Dayton’s GOP challengers seek cash from Minnesota to Singapore
Gathering donations from as far away as Singapore, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Scott Honour is leading the fundraising race among the five candidates vying to challenge Gov. Mark Dayton this fall.
Campaign finance reports filed yesterday by Honour, Jeff Johnson, Sen. Dave Thompson of Lakeville, Rep. Kurt Zellers of Maple Grove and Marty Seifert offer the latest look at how the candidates are faring financially in the lead-up to the party’s May endorsement convention.
All told, Honour raised about $250,000 since the start of the year. Roughly $50,000 of that came from his own checking account, and about $88,000 came from donors living outside of Minnesota, including $53,000 from donors living in California where Honour worked at an investment firm until recently.
Last year, Honour’s former colleagues at the Gores Group gave him more than $21,000 of the nearly $615,000 Honour raised during the entire year.
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"To compete with Governor Dayton, the DFL machine, and groups like the Alliance for a Better MN, funded by the governor's ex-wife, a Rockefeller heiress, requires a broad and deep fundraising base," said Honour spokeswoman Valentina Weis. "A successful candidate has to raise money in Minnesota and nationally. Scott has that, which is a sign of a strong campaign."
While Honour has brought in more money than any other candidate in the race, he has far less in the bank. Jeff Johnson, who raised about $32,000 this quarter, the least of any candidate, has $141,000 available to spend compared to Honour’s $63,000.
Trailing Honour in fundraising is Zellers, who raised about $91,000 since the start of the year, including a $20,000 from his own pocket. He has nearly $78,000 in the bank.
Zellers, who hosted a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. in February, netted $3,250 from donors outside Minnesota.
Thompson has raised about $67,000 so far this year though he has about $27,000 in outstanding debt as well.
And Seifert, who won the gubernatorial straw poll in February, raised about $64,000.
Campaign spokesman Andy Post said that, despite the straw poll win, the campaign didn’t focus much on fundraising this quarter and just recently hired Peter Aurich, who worked on former Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s first campaign, to conduct Seifert’s fundraising efforts.
“We were more focused on these 130 conventions where we needed to have a presence,” Post said.
Among Seifert’s donors this quarter are Robert and Joan Cummins, two wealthy Republicans who gave Seifert a total of $8,000. The Cummins family gave Thompson and Johnson the same amount last year.
Meanwhile, Dayton raised nearly $196,000 and has $733,000 in the bank, more than all his Republican challengers combined.
One of his largest donors is public radio personality Garrison Keillor, who gave $1,000 in cash and spent $3,000 hosting a fundraiser for him.
Other notable donors are Mayo Clinic CEO John Noseworthy, who gave Dayton $1,000, and former Republican politician Wheelock Whitney, who gave Dayton $750. Whitney was a spokesman for a campaign to prevent same-sex marriage from being banned in the state’s constitution.