29 March 2017

Rob Quist raises $3/4 million from almost 18,000 donations

Democratic congressional candidate Rob Quist raised $754,387 dollars from almost 18,000 donations in “the first few weeks” of his campaign according to Tina Olechowski, his communications director.

The average donation was $40. The median, $15. Two-thirds of the money raised came from donors in Montana.

Update, 1905 MDT. The Missoulian reports that Quist’s Republican opponent, Greg Gianforte, has raised $1.5 million thus far, and that third party groups have committed $700,000 to his campaign.

Some donors may have made more than one contribution. Quist uses Act Blue, which makes it easy (all too easy, according to some reports) to set up automatic recurring donations (read the fine print when using Act Blue).

Raising most of his money from Montana means the Democratic National Committee is letting Quist twist in the wind. The DNC thinks Quist will lose, and thinks it’s smart not to take long shots.

Except in the Confederate south. Down in the Georgia’s sixth congressional district, a high income district gerrymandered to elect Republicans, Democrat Jon Ossoff, running to replace anti-Affordable Care Act Republican Tom Price, who vacated the seat to become Secretary of Health and Human Services, has raised millions of dollars and received help from the DNC even though Ossoff’s odds of victory are not much shorter than Quist’s.

The DNC cares about re-electing Sen. Jon Tester, but doesn’t give a damn about electing a Montana Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The amount of money raised, incidentally, puts Quist’s $2,000 per month campaign salary in perspective. He’s staying alive, but he’s not running a scam. His consultants will take down the big money from his campaign.