The Moderate Washingtonian

Outlook on politics and elections in the state of Washington from an overall centrist viewpoint. My views tend to be libertarian in nature, but at the same time are largely nonpartisan.

11 May 2006

Conservative judicial PAC -- scare tactics?

Listen, I don't like the idea of judicial PACs any more or less than the next guy, but all this harping on the conservative Constitutional Law PAC is thus far misplaced. Upon checking April's C4 reports at the PDC, the first full month for the Susan Owens-Stephen Johnson matchup, Owens (the liberal incumbent) trounced Johnson (the conservative challenger) in fundraising and has a big cash-on-hand lead. The numbers:

Susan Owens
Started: $2000.00
[add] April receipts: $40554.21
[subtract] Total disbursements: $12209.19
Debts: $0.00
Total: $30345.02 on hand

Stephen Johnson
Started: $3000.00
[add] April receipts: $9775.00
[subtract] Total disbursements: $1329.14
Debts: $3000.00
Total: $11445.86 without debt

As one can see, Owens raised four times as much as Johnson, spent nearly ten times as much as Johnson, and still has three times as much. Thus far, all the media's whining about conservatives buying the bench is unfounded. I'm not saying this will not change, because I suspect Johnson to be at least as well-funded as Jim Johnson was in 2004, but at the offset it is the liberal with the cash lead.

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