Posted in Election 2012, Those Kooky Conservatives!, Wisconsin Politics

Surprise, surprise! Out-of-stater Eric Hovde raises most of his money from…..out of state!

   April 18, 2012

Last week I wrote a little about the fundraising numbers for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin and one of her Republican counterparts, extreme conservative businessman Mark Neumann.

Image courtesy Hovde for Senate Facebook page
One candidate I neglected to mention is Washington, D.C. rich guy Eric Hovde (pictured, left), who has carpetbagged back to Wisconsin to try and buy himself a United States Senate seat. After perusing Hovde’s recently released fundraising reports, I was struck by the fact that despite claiming to have raised $1.6 million for his campaign, Hovde really only raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000 in campaign contributions, with the rest of the money Hovde “raised” having been “raised” from his own pocket/Swiss bank account/trust fund/savings account (whichever applies).

The paltry $100,000 Hovde raised from contributors not named Eric Hovde puts Hovde’s fundraising on par with State Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald, which isn’t a compliment and places Hovde firmly near the bottom of the Republican U.S. Senate field in terms of fundraising.

For the quarter, Hovde’s U.S. Senate campaign received a grand total of 63 contributions, with just 15 of those contributions coming from individuals who reside in Wisconsin, the state Hovde hopes to represent in the United States Senate. What’s more, just under 30% of the contributions to Hovde’s campaign came from Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., a fact that only cements Hovde’s status as a true “outsider” in the race – as in, he’s from outside the state of Wisconsin.

On a somewhat related tangent, Hovde’s campaign treasurer is listed as Craig Engle, who unless I’m grossly mistaken is an attorney and lobbyist with the Washington, D.C.-based political law firm Arent Fox PLLC, because apparently there aren’t any Wisconsinites qualified to serve as campaign treasurer for a U.S. Senate candidate.

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7 thoughts on “Surprise, surprise! Out-of-stater Eric Hovde raises most of his money from…..out of state!”

  1. Is it too early to gloss this greedhead as “Hedge fund Hovde”? I think it’s quite catchy meself.

  2. If I had that kind of money, why on earth would I waste my time politicking? If I ran out of interesting but not destructive ideas about what to do with all that money, I could hire someone to do it for me.

  4. This guys adds give me the creeps. I asked on his Facebook page if he is associated with ALEC and my post was removed. It was just a simple yes or no question.

  5. Mr. Hovde, campaign has spent a lot of money on TV lately. What I find troubling about his TV commercials, are the fact that they make no mention of him running as a Republican. It gives me the impression that he is trying to stay far away from His Governor “Scott Walker” and Their Republican party. !!!

  6. CUT POLITICIAN PAY 70%
    let them earn no more than us.

    POLITICIANS are public employees aren’t they? How about an ACT 11 forcing THEM to impose a 2/3rds pay cut on THEMSELVES.

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