With just over a week to go from Primary Day, candidates and campaigns have opened up their finances. The deadlines for campaigns to report their finances came Friday and Monday, based on the type of campaign.
This gives the public an inside look on how much money the campaigns have raised, where it came from and how it is spent.
“You’d rather have more money than not,” said Adrian Hemond, of Grassroots Midwest.
That is shown when you look inside the campaign finance disclosures on the Secretary of State website. Every candidate now lists how they got their money and where it is going.
“You’ll see a lot of expenses for things like direct mail, digital ads, yard signs, billboards,” said Hemond, “For campaigns that have a lot of money, you’ll see expenses for television and radio ads.”
It can give you an idea of how the candidate is doing or the support they have. In a midterm election with a Democrat in the White House, Republicans should have an advantage in money. That hasn’t necessarily played out.
“It’s shocking frankly,” said Hemond, “That in seven potentially competitive State Senate races, the Democrat out raises the Republican in all seven. That is shocking.”
The money isn’t everything. One of the largest fundraisers in any House race is Betsy Coffia of Traverse City. She reported $186,000 already raised.
“She’s got a lot of money so she will be competitive,” said Hemond, “But the president‘s really unpopular right now, the economy‘s not in great shape and so she’s going to have a real tough election up there. In a seat that she has run for a couple times before, in better environments, and not been successful.”
The reports also show how much candidates spend on themselves, guys like Kevin Rinke and Perry Johnson are self-funded and when it’s over, they can pay themselves back with anything left over, or donate the rest.
“They are allowed to make political contributions with it,” said Hemond, “Up to the legal limits from their type of committee.”
To view the state campaign finance reports, head to this
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