State Democrats raise more than Republicans in first quarter
The state DFL party and the House and Senate DFL caucuses have raised a total of $1.4 million since the start of the year and have about $1.5 million in the bank.
Financially speaking, the DFL is in better shape than the Minnesota Republican Party, the GOP caucuses known as the Senate Victory Fund and the House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC). Together, all three groups have raised $527,169, and have $908,000 in the bank.
The Republicans got a major financial boost from the Freedom Club, an outside political organization that raises and spends money on its own slate of candidates. Earlier this year, the organization gave the state Republican Party $100,000. The Freedom Club was founded by wealthy GOP donor Robert Cummins, who gave the group $75,000 this year.
Former Target CEO Bob Urlich was the party's single largest individual donor, giving $25,000. Stan Hubbard, who owns Hubbard Broadcasting, gave the HRCC $25,000.
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Meanwhile, the state party is still digging itself out of nearly $2 million in debt racked up under former chairman Tony Sutton. At this point, the party has $547,000 in debt to lawyers, pollsters and direct mail shops (the DFL reports about $24,000 in debt.)
The DFL has its own go-to donors, with Alida Messinger, Gov. Mark Dayton's ex-wife, giving the party and House Democrats $150,000 respectively. Investor Vance Opperman chipped in $50,000 and unions were generous with the state party, and the House and Senate caucuses.
Those figures don't include fundraising on the federal level, where the parties will raise money to defend and defeat U.S. House and Senate candidates.
At the end of March, the GOP had raised $477,000 and had about $22,000 in cash. The DFL had raised about $593,000 at the end of March and had about $285,500 in the bank.
Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Keith Downey says he isn't surprised that Minnesota's Democrats have more money.
But "I feel very confident in the support that we are getting broadly as Republicans," Downey said, noting that the amount of money raised by all the five Republicans seeking the party endorsement to challenge Gov. Mark Dayton this fall is impressive. "While it's dispersed across a number of candidates, in terms of the interest, I think you're seeing extremely strong support on the Republican side."