Good Lord

The latest campaign finance reports are out and that means bloggers and reporters will be inundated with press releases in which candidates try to place their numbers in the best possible light.   I especially enjoy the spin from challengers whose releases all sound like used car ads: "Best Quarter Ever", "Most Contributions from Small Donors", "Most raised on Weekdays." 

That's what the challengers say, but what they usually mean is "Wow, the incumbent raised a truck load of money and he's got a ton of it on hand." 

While I enjoy reading the press releases, I never consider, you know...printing them.  That's because I'm a blogger so I have to have high standards.  The mainstream papers can get away with taking a press release straight from their fax machine to their fancy website, but I have credibility to maintain. 

Here's a great example of falling for a press release.  It comes courtesy of reporter Michael Clancy on azcentral.

Democrat Bob Lord's congressional campaign says it has raised more than $1 million, a figure Lord contends is 10 times more than any other opponent of Congressman John Shadegg has raised.

Ten times more than any previous opponent?  How meaningless is that?

Reporter Matthew Benson got the coverage right for the print edition. 

Shadegg raised $564,000 between April and the end of June, adding to his fundraising edge in north Phoenix's 3rd Congressional District and more than doubling the $235,000 generated by Democrat Bob Lord.

Shadegg also has $1.4 million on hand which is nearly double Lord's balance.

However sources tell me that Lord raised nearly twice as much money on Tuesdays as Shadegg did.   

Comments

[Nick]

Shadegg's got a tough race. He might win by only 10%.

[Roger56phx]

Actually, Clancy got that story right. Benson played into the "dumb" electorate. EVERYONE knows, even if you don't know politics, that incumbents will out-raise challengers.

The real story here is that Lord is doing so well and is keeping up with John Shadegg. Lord is killing it compared to all other Congressional challengers in the state.

So, Clancy was the one who got it right. He's actually showing the truth rather than sugar-coating it by mis-reporting the real story like the one Benson wrote.

This is a big no-brainer here.

[ron]

Recent polls say that everyone is unhappy with the GOP (President) and with the DEMs (Congress). Is "None of the Above" running?

[George Hunt]

Being fair, Shadegg's 2006 opponent held him to 58%, a very dangerous number for an incumbent member of Congress.

If Shadegg's opponent has raised ten times as much money this time, that is a distinction worth noting. If Herb Paine raised 100k and held Shadegg to 58%, then an opponent with 10 times as much money as of June, and four months more to raise it, that's a difference Shadegg ignores at his peril.