Candidates hoping to replace McMorris Rodgers in Congress have raised $1 million. Here’s who’s got the most.

The race to represent Eastern Washington in Congress is heating up, as evidenced by the $1 million raised by a dozen candidates – most of it in the first three months of the year.

Amid an unusually early party endorsement and efforts to consolidate the backing of regional political leaders, early fundraising figures reported this month can also provide clues as to who the candidates know and how confident their supporters are that they could win, and could provide a sneak peek into the innerworkings of their campaigns.

Candidates will need those war chests to reach voters in the sprawling 5th Congressional District, which spans from the Canadian border to Oregon, particularly as none of them has the kind of name recognition as outgoing incumbent Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. And while some have taken in sizable hauls, they are almost all dwarfed by those brought in by McMorris Rodgers in past elections. In her 2018 race against now-Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown, who raised $649,000 in the same amount of time, McMorris Rodgers raised more than $776,000.

Only Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner came close, having raised nearly $404,000 by the end of March – almost twice as much as every other Republican candidate combined. State Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber, R-Republic, has raised most of the rest of those funds, reporting $139,000 for her campaign. Two Republican candidates, former sheriff’s deputy Jody Spurgeon and talk radio show host Rene Holaday, reported that they raised and spent nothing for their campaigns.

Their fundraising will likely increase in the next quarter, however, as Republican candidates only began entering the race in mid-February, following McMorris Rodgers’ surprise Feb. 8 announcement that she would not be seeking re-election. Some candidates may also drop out, as has former state employee John Guenther, who reported raising $8,300. He exited the race last week immediately following the Washington GOP convention, where the state party endorsed Ferry County Commissioner Brian Dansel.

Dansel, who served in the administration of former President Donald Trump, reported raising under $16,000. The party’s endorsement on April 19, three weeks after the fundraising reporting deadline, may give Dansel a boost in the months ahead.

Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper has raised $22,000, not including a $13,500 loan she made to her campaign. Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle has raised under $18,000.

The four Democrats running combined have raised nearly $412,000, and three have been running since sometime last year: former diplomat Carmela Conroy, who has raised over $153,000; business consultant Ann Marie Danimus, who has raised over $140,000; and OB-GYN Bernadine Bank, who has raised over $101,000. Matthew Welde, a Kootenai County deputy prosecuting attorney, only started fundraising on March 11 and has received around $17,000.

Baumgartner has received money from more than 350 donors, but his dominant fundraising can at least in part be credited to relatively few with deep pockets. Three-fourths of his haul came from people who donated more than $2,000 each, and half comes from 31 donors who gave $6,600, providing the legal maximum for not only the August primary but also in advance for the November general election.

Most of those maxed-out donors also had generous family members; eight people with the last name Baumgartner donated $6,600, as did six Gordons, two Mercks, two Connors, and two Hansons – two other Hansons also each donated $5,000.

Maycumber also received four $3,300 donations, the maximum for just the primary election, from four people from two families.

Danimus raised $87,000 from donations of $200 or less, which is the threshold for mandatory reporting of a donor’s information, more than any other candidate.

Conroy leads with mid-sized donations of between $200 and $2,000, having raised nearly $82,000 worth of them. She also comes in second with small-dollar donations, with nearly $40,000.

Candidates vary, sometimes wildly, in how many of those contributions came from Washington donors or from residents of other states. Only three of Welde’s 20 named donors are Washingtonians, with many of the others being out-of-state attorneys. All of Bingle’s 21 named donors are Washingtonians, and all but one are from Spokane County, possible evidence of a local politician struggling to break through elsewhere in the district.

Among named donors, Washingtonians make up 94% of Dansel’s total, 92% of Maycumber’s, 89% of Cooper’s, 88% of Baumgartner’s, 69% of Conroy’s, 73% of Danimus’ and 44% of Bank’s. In many cases, the candidates personally or professionally know their out-of-state donors, such as a number of physicians or other medical professionals giving to Bank, current and former State Department employees supporting Conroy, and former colleagues from Baumgartner’s time as an economics officer in the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

Money from political action committees has been largely absent thus far in the race. Maycumber has received the most support from PACs, including $10,000 from the Value in Electing Women PAC, $5,000 from the Washington State Republic Party, $5,000 from the Laborers International Union of North America PAC and $3,300 from the Engineers Political Action Committee. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association PAC has given another $2,500, while the Washington Forest Protection Association Federal PAC chipped in $1,000.

Baumgartner is the only other candidate to have received a significant amount of money from a political action committee, having received $2,500 from the Hecla Mining Company PAC.

Interesting expenses

The candidates also vary wildly in how much they’ve spent and what they’ve spent that money on.

In some cases, those expenses are fairly predictable: Baumgartner has spent $13,000 on video production and another $9,000 on campaign signs. Conroy has invested even more heavily in yard signs, spending $23,000 on that expense alone.

Danimus, who jumped into the race months before anyone else, has managed to raise roughly $141,000, but has spent $50,000 of it on fundraising consulting with C2G Strategies.

Fundraising consulting is also one of the largest expenses for Conroy, who spent $12,000 to acquire a fundraising list from consulting firm Blue Wave Political Partners, and Bank, who spent $11,000 with fundraising consultant 503 Strategies.

For candidates with smaller budgets, campaign consulting can also be a significant chunk of change. Bingle paid $6,800 to Liberty Star Holdings, an Oregon-based company owned by D. Scott Peterson, who has decades of executive experience in natural gas development and consulting, including having previously served as Senior Vice President at Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm.

Maycumber reported spending only $5,000, mostly on credit card fees and compliance consulting, an unusually small percentage of her overall receipts compared to the other candidates. In a brief interview, she largely credited this to her work in the state Legislature only ending on March 7. While Maycumber announced her candidacy on Feb. 20, she said she didn’t start campaigning in earnest until mid-March and decided against expensing for time spent on the road, for instance.

“I have not actually bought any signs yet, so, yeah, I’ve been being frugal,” she said.