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Ted Strickland’s Senate campaign raised close to $1 million in the year’s third quarter
YOUNGSTOWN
Ex-Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in 2016, raised $970,741 in the third quarter of the year.
In comparison, Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, another Democrat seeking the party’s nomination for the seat, raised $229,000, and incumbent U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, collected $2 million during the same July-to-September time frame.
As of Sept. 30, Strickland had more than $1.5 million in his Senate campaign fund compared to $784,000 for Sittenfeld and more than $11 million for Portman, including money carried over by the incumbent from last year.
During the first nine months of this year, Strickland’s campaign raised $2,642,814. Sittenfeld raised $1,258,179, and Portman raised $7.65 million in this year’s first nine months.
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.
Portman and outside groups supporting his re-election have spent “up to $9.5 million already trying to prop Portman up and tear Ted down. But Ted continues to lead Portman in the polls because Ohio voters, not Washington dollars will decide this race,” said Jennifer Donohue, an Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman speaking on behalf of the Strickland campaign.
In the 2012 election, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, raised about $5 million – about twice as much as Strickland in this campaign – during the first nine months. Brown raised $25 million in that successful campaign.
Meanwhile, Sittenfeld’s campaign said it would air a commercial in five television markets, including Youngstown, during tonight’s Democratic presidential debate on CNN. It’s Sittenfeld’s first commercial of the campaign. Strickland hasn’t aired any TV commercials.