Kelliher v. Rybak: the money battle

One of the more intriguing battles in the DFL gubernatorial contest is the one between House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL-Minneapolis) and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. Given their photo-finish in last week’s Democratic straw ballot vote (Rybak bested Kelliher by less than 400 votes out of about 23,000 cast), key DFL insiders tell us to watch closely now as the gloves come off. Others said to take another look at the 2009 year-end campaign reports, so we did:

Kelliher supporters like what they see in the reports. One, she raised $117,738 more than Rybak. Two, she had $0 in unpaid obligations, while Rybak had $59,020. Three, net cash (cash balance less loans payable and unpaid bills)  was $79,513 for Kelliher and -$34,247 for Rybak, a difference of $113,770. And four, despite starting almost three months later, Rybak spent almost as much as Kelliher did. Of course, a chunk of Rybak’s spending was to pay his mayoral committee for gubernatorial polling, as ordered by the Campaign Finance Board.

[This story first appeared in the February 5, 2010 edition of the Weekly Report.]

2 Responses to “Kelliher v. Rybak: the money battle”

1. Chris Says:
   February 10th, 2010 at 9:45 am

   Please do your research and post the whole story. You failed to report that Kelliher formed her committee and started raising cash on August 13, 2009 and Rybak didn’t form his committee and start raising cash until November 5, 2009. So you are comparing almost five months of fundraising for Kelliher to less than two months of fundraising for Rybak. You are comparing apples to oranges.

2. Dave Says:
   February 10th, 2010 at 12:19 pm

   This post is just sloppy. First of all, Chris is right: this analysis is meaningless if you claim that Kelliher’s 140 days of fundraising in 2009 are somehow equal to Rybak’s 66 days of fundraising.

   Second, let’s do the math: in 2009 alone, Rybak raised an average of $2,082 a day, while Kelliher raised an average of $1,822 a day. In other words, Rybak raised at clip 15% faster than Kelliher.

   Moreover, you neglect to mention that Rybak also reported raising another $140,000 in January of this year alone, which means that in those 31 days, he raised $4,516 per day, more than doubling his 2009 clip of money raised per day. (If Kelliher’s January figures were as impressive, don’t you think she would have voluntarily released them by now?)

   And you can bet that after Rybak surprised the endorsement-laden Kelliher - not to mention the pundits who had already crowned her the front-runner - by beating her at the DFL precinct caucuses, his fundraising has picked up even more.

   Rybak has already proven he can raise: in addition to his gubernatorial numbers, he pulled in $389,000 for his 2009 mayoral-reelection campaign in a year when his landslide victory was preordained - and with limits of $500 per person.

   Finally: check your math before you post. Rybak’s unpaid bills are $29,920, not $59,020. Even if you speciously add in the value of the loan, $29,920 + $30,000 = $59,920, not $59,020. (Are you laying off editors around there?)

   Again, sloppy work. What’s the real agenda here?