Jon Tester and Conrad Burns Fundraising

The second quarter fundraising numbers are in and a quick analysis shows that Senator Conrad Burns is in serious trouble. In 2000, Sen. Burns successfully bought the election by spending $5.1 million dollars. That latest numbers show that Burns has already spent $4.6 million -- 90% of his obscenely huge last total -- with four months remaining in the race.

Meanwhile, Jon Tester is doing great. Due to the pre-primary report, we can break down Tester's total into two equal halves of the reporting period. During the first half of the quarter, Tester had the momentum by outraising John Morrison with Tester's report showing $147,000 in contributions. Tester's total for the quarter is $864,000 (only $4,000 less than Burns), which means Tester raised $717,000 in the second half of the quarter. Tester has huge momentum in terms of fundraising, raising a half a million more during the most recent quarter half than he did in the first half.

To win this, Tester needs to raise around $1.5 million this quarter and another $2 million during the final stretch of the campaign (this would give Tester twice the resources Brian Schweitzer had in 2000 in addition to Tester's primary campaign investments). That is a lot of money, but the same reason Tester scored a huge increase turnout during the primary is the reason why Tester can get the job done: people are inspired.

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