Republicans Lead In Fundraising For US Senate Race

Republicans are leading in campaign fundraising for the US Senate race for the seat being vacated by David Vitter. ULM political science professor Dr. Joshua Stockley says US Representative Charles Boustany had the best recent fundraising period with $1.1 million raised and $2.5 million in the bank.

“Charles Boustany has had a very good quarter and suggests that he may be separating just a little bit from Representative Fleming,” Stockley said.

US Representative John Fleming reports $2.4 million in his campaign cofers and State Treasurer John Kennedy has a total of $1.4 million in the bank. Stockley says Kennedy’s name recognition will give him an advantage over the other two GOP candidates.

“Boustany and Fleming are trying to distinguish themselves from each other and make the case that they should be the Republican alternative to Kennedy,” Stockley said.

Stockley says the Democratic fundraising at this point is unimpressive. Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell is leading after raising $499-thousand in the last quarter, reporting $868-thousand in the bank. Caroline Fayard brought in $273-thousand with $634-thousand total on hand. Stockley says the Democrats got off to a late start in fundraising, and they are essentially splitting the available campaign dollars from democratic donors.

“If you only had one Democrat in the race, they would probably be taking those two totals, and that would stack competitively and more favorably relative to the Republican candidates,” Stockley said.

Stockley says we’re still in the quiet period of the election, and he suspects these fundraising totals are just scratching the surface of what we’ll see in September and October.