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| Thu, Dec. 03 - - Mobile - RSS | |
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Chichester, Houck get campaign head starts
Incumbent Democrat leads opponents in raising funds for political race this fall.Date published: 4/16/2003
RICHMOND--Campaign finance reports for the first quarter of the year show Democrat Sen. Edd Houck leading his Republican challenger in fund raising, while Sen. John Chichester is sitting on a hefty nest egg for his primary race. Houck has nearly $63,000 in his campaign account, while Republican Robert Stuber has about $55,400. But Houck raised about three times as much money as Stuber-- nearly $29,000 to Stuber's $8,840. Stuber reported another $5,145 in "in-kind" contributions--"in-kind" meaning when someone donates a service or item rather than cash. About half of Stuber's in-kind contributions came from his own company, the Stuber Group in Fredericksburg. The company donated $2,645 in postage and office supplies. The other half of Stuber's in-kind contributions came from a Web site hosting company, Cory Consulting in Stafford, which is creating Stuber's campaign Web site. Stuber spent about $5,900, most of which went to a political consulting company, New Dominion Strategies in Virginia Beach. Houck spent nearly $11,000, including $6,000 to his campaign manager, Craig Bieber. Bieber said Houck is aiming to raise $300,000 to $350,000 over the course of the campaign. "There's a long ways still to go," Bieber said. Houck's largest contribution, $5,000, came from the campaign account of Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax. Stuber's largest donations include $1,000 from Paul Jost, who is challenging Sen. Tommy Norment, R-Williamsburg, in a primary race in the 3rd District. Stuber also received $500 from Saber Communications, a Stafford company run by Republican Mike Rothfeld. Rothfeld is challenging Chichester in a primary race for the 28th District seat. Chichester's report shows cash contributions totaling just $50 for the reporting period. But Chichester already had a sizable campaign account, and he ends the reporting period with nearly $270,000 in the bank. He spent $7,800 during the period, and he remains far ahead of Rothfeld. Rothfeld did not have to file a report yesterday because he just entered the race last week, but he said yesterday that he has about $22,000 cash in hand, and about that much more in hard pledges. Rothfeld said he hasn't held any big fund-raising events yet; he's trying to get contributions through "direct fund raising"--calling and mailing people to request donations. Sitting lawmakers were not allowed to campaign for donations during the General Assembly session. That left incumbents like Houck and Chichester with just five or six weeks out of a three-month period in which to raise money.
Date published: 4/16/2003
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