43
Group backing Sittenfield outpaces his own fundraising
YOUNGSTOWN
An independent political group backing P.G. Sittenfeld’s U.S. Senate bid raised more money in two weeks than the Democratic candidate did between July and September.
New Leadership for Ohio, a super PAC that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money as long as it doesn’t coordinate with a candidate, collected $370,000 in its first couple of weeks of operating.
In comparison, the campaign of Sittenfeld, a Cincinnati councilman, raised $229,000 in the third quarter of the year.
The Sittenfeld campaign trumpeted the money raised by the super PAC in a Friday email that stated: “Sittenfeld for Senate supporters raised $600,000 in the 3rd quarter,” and that there were “two ‘pro-PG’ entities.”
When asked about the statement, Dale Butland, Sittenfeld’s campaign spokesman, said, “It was fair to mention them both because the super PAC formed saying they’d run TV ads to get people to know P.G. They’re totally their own show. We can’t coordinate. That’s illegal.”
The third quarter continues a trend of declining contributions to Sittenfeld’s campaign. He raised $757,043 during the first three months of the year. That dropped to $272,136 between April and June. As of Sept. 30, Sittenfeld had $784,000 in his campaign account.
Ex-Gov. Ted Strickland, the Democratic frontrunner for the 2016 Senate nomination, is expected next week to announce his fundraising total for the third quarter. In the first quarter, he raised $672,073, and $1 million in the second quarter. His campaign had $1.2 million in cash on hand as of June 30.
In comparison, incumbent U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, raised $2 million in the third quarter. He collected $2.9 million in the second quarter, and $2.75 million in the first quarter. He had more than $11 million in his account as of Sept. 30.
A recent Quinnipiac University Poll had Strickland ahead of Portman by 3 percentage points, and Portman ahead of Sittenfeld by 22 percentage points with a 2.9 percent margin of error.