According to a press release issued by the campaign of Democratic Congressional candidate Rob Zerban, who’s challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Paul Ryan in the 1st Congressional district, the Zerban campaign raised $326,000 in the last fundraising quarter. From January 1, 2012 to March 31, 2012, the Zerban campaign raised $326,000, for a total raised this cycle of $840,000, and the Zerban campaign ends the quarter with $426,000 cash on hand.
In an interesting (but not surprising) contrast to Rep. Ryan, 92 percent of the money the Zerban campaign raised came from individuals, while in contrast 32 percent of the money raised by Paul Ryan’s campaign in the 4th quarter of 2011 came from special interest group PACs.
As a sign of the strength of Zerban’s fundraising, $305,000 of the total raised by Rob Zerban came from individual contributions, with $151,000 of that raised in individual contributions under $200, while in the 4th quarter of 2011 (the last reported period prior to this report), Rep. Ryan raised $302,000 from individuals and only $102,000 in individual contributions under $200. While Rep. Ryan hasn’t released his fundraising numbers for the first quarter of 2012 yet, Rob Zerban certainly seems to more than keeping pace with Rep. Ryan’s fundraising. What’s more, prior to the 2012 cycle, all of Paul Ryan’s Democratic challengers raised approximately $250,000 combined, $103,000 less than the Zerban campaign raised this quarter alone.
In a statement accompanying his campaign’s press release, Zerban attributed his fundraising success to the dissatisfaction of Rep. Ryan’s constitutuents with Ryan’s poor decision making.
“I am overwhelmed by the continued support of people who are fed up with Paul Ryan’s 14 years of poor decisions. They know we need leaders who listen to the people, not just the corporations, and who put their needs above Wall Street,” Rob Zerban said.
“As our campaign momentum continues to grow we will ensure we have the resources to let every voter in the 1st Congressional District know there is a clear choice this November – a choice between having a leader with real world experience and Wisconsin values and having a Washington insider continue to put the 1st Congressional District last.”
WI Union boss Gooch McGowan SUPPORTS RYAN
Union boss Gooch McGowan, local 139, Operating Engineers in addition to SUPPORTING WALKER for WI Governor, has a long history of SUPPORTING RYAN. You see, Ryan’s family is in the road building business and they are of course a union shop and signatories with boss McGowan’s local 139.
I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Rob Zerban on a day he was making public appearances with Tammy Baldwin. My first impressions are certainly good.
When it comes to raising a lot of money in small pieces, Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign immediately comes to mind. I think that then-Senator Obama was as surprised as anybody that he could raise enough money, $25 at a time, to go up against the GOP slush funds successfully. It’s encouraging to see that it’s still possible.
To be realistic, I expect that sooner or later Ryan will have unlimited SuperPAC funds at his disposal. We’ll just have to see how it pans out, but I for one believe that fighting the teabaggers to the bitter end, causing them to spend as much time and treasure as possible, is absolutely imperative.
The ALEC backlash proves that Big Business isn’t tone-deaf to the outrage of the many hands that feed them. During the Republican Presidential primary of 2012 we saw the plausible deniability of SuperPAC attack ads backfire on candidates. If this trend continues, there’s a good chance that Mr. Zerban will have something close enough to a level playing field by November to be able to win.
Yeah, Rob’s a great candidate, and I’m hopeful he’s just the candidate Democrats needed to knock off Paul Ryan.
Rooting for you, Rob!!!!
I’ve met Rob a few times now, but the other day was the first in about five months. I was startled that he remembered me, and also something I’d put on Facebook. That’s a skill a politician has to have. The biggest plus for Rob, though, is that he’s nothing like Paul Ryan.