Not only did comedian turned politician Al Franken double the fundraising numbers of his Democratic competition, he beat incumbent Norm Coleman by $300,000. However, the overall numbers are only half the story. Sen. Coleman has not surprisingly turned to big money interests such as industry PACs. Franken only claims one percent of his contributions from PACs. The rest is all from the grassroots. It isn't hard to see who is running a campaign for the people.
From The Politico:
The Al Franken for Senate campaign announced today that it expects to report having raised over $1.9 million in the second quarter of 2007 when it files its quarterly report with the FEC on July 15.
The money was raised from nearly 28,000 donors. So far in 2007, over 36,000 donors have contributed a grand total of over $3.2 million. The campaign is particularly pleased to note that over 95 percent of contributions in the second quarter were $100 or less.
The $1.9 million figure would mean that Al has likely out-raised incumbent Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) in the second quarter, an unusual feat for a challenger. Sen. Coleman's campaign reported raising "over $1.5 million" in the quarter. The Franken campaign will report nearly $2 million cash on hand.
The average Franken supporter gave just $65 dollars. The majority of that PAC money came from Dick Durbin. Coleman took over $450,000 or a third of his contributions in PAC money last quarter. There aren't any numbers for his 2nd quarter of that detail yet. CW says incumbents win the money race but there is no conventionality when it comes to Al Franken going after freshman Norm Coleman.
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