Former Congresswoman Shelley Sekula Gibbs reports strong grassroots fundraising for the second quarter of 2007 as she seeks the opportunity to regain the seat she won in the 2006 special election, while Democrat Nick Lampson sucked up PAC dollars in his bid to retain the seat he won without a GOP opponent on the ballot following the resignation Tom Delay.

According to his release, Lampson raised more than $288,000 between April 1 and June 30 of this year, while FEC reports show Gibbs raised more than 138,000 for the same period.

ThatÂ’s less than 10% of what Lampson raised to wage his 2006 campaign against Tom DeLay, which then morphed into a race against Gibbs.

LampsonÂ’s second quarter report somewhat resembled the firstin that then well more than half his contributions came from PACs. So far this year money has come from those operated by the likes of National Weather Service Employees, Employees of Northrop Grumman Corp., Qwest Communications, Comcast, the Sheetmetal Workers Association, Chevron Employees, Verizon Communications, the International LongshoremanÂ’s Association, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and on and on.

“Lampson, who recently had to spend six weeks recovering from major heart surgery, now has $441,049.87 cash on hand,” his campaign said in a prepared statement. “Despite having to spend half of the last quarter recovering from a quadruple bypass heart surgery, Congressman Lampson exceeded the campaign’s original goals.”

By contrast, Gibbs got just $5,000 from PACs in the second quarter. She and campaign manager Troy Berman were quick to point out the other day that the bulk came from “grass roots” contributions.

Some of that grass was a little greener than others, as numerous dermatologists and other medical doctors kicked in $250, $500 or $1,000 apiece to fellow dermatologist Gibbs. Lampson grassroots givers were more likely to be lawyers.

Gibbs showed “an impressive $137,000 raised and over $180,000 cash on hand at the close of the reporting period,” her campaign said in a press release. “Our fundraising is just starting and will continue to grow. With influential community leaders like Mr. Bob Perry, Don Jordan, John O’Neill and Senator Mike Richards helping our campaign I know we’ll have the resources we need to take back TX-22,” Gibbs said in the release.

Lampson's reliance on out-of-district special interest money is no surprise, given that CD22 is overwhelmingly Republican and the strange route by which he won the district in 2006. And given Sekula Gibbs' support by prominent republicans from the district, it seems clear that she ought to be the favorite for the nomination in 2008 -- and in the 2008 general election.

Posted by: Greg at 01:19 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 454 words, total size 3 kb.