Hafen out of the blocks with $369K; Derby raises more than Heller

(updated from an earlier post to reflect the arrival of Derby/Heller numbers)

Tessa Hafen announced Friday that she raised $369,000 in the first quarter of 2006 -- the first quarter that she started taking money. Not bad. We haven't seen fresh numbers yet for Hafen's opponent, CD3 incumbent Jon Porter, R-Tom DeLay, Porter, started the quarter with $940,000 on hand raised $410,000 in the quarter, bringing his total for the cycle to $1.7 million. He's sporting $1.3 million in cash on hand -- and there's plenty more where that came from -- oodles, in fact, will be dropped on Porter April 24 when Bush comes to town make sure Porter has enough money to take voters' minds off of Bush. Why, yes, a protest is being organized.

By the way, in 2004, Porter spent $2.6 million, and Tom Gallagher spent $2.1 million.

In CD2, the other contested congressional race where a Nevada woman is going to help the Democrats take control of the U.S. House, Jill Derby's report will show that she raised $190,000 in the quarter -- quite nice for CD2, spectacular for a Democrat in CD2 and -- get this -- $40,000 more than the $150,000 Republican CD2 candidate Dean Heller raised in the period. Derby has raised a total of more than $435,000 and has $350,000 cash on hand. Heller's lackluster first quarter numbers notwithstanding, he's still got $550,000 on hand. It'll be interesting to see how much the other GOP candidates, Dawn Gibbons and Sharron Angle, have managed to shake down from their rich wingnut friends scattered around the country. But make no mistake, CD2 is a race.

Finally, turning to the Nevada Democratic woman who is already in the House -- Shelley Berkley raised only $132,000 in the quarter. But the CD1 incumbent already raised $1.3 million in cash for the current cycle, and though she's spent a fair amount, thanks to the $600,000 she carried over from her 2004 race, she's still sitting on $1.3 million in cash. The Republican guy who has surfaced to run against her says he's got $125,000 to drop on the race and, to his credit, s'pose, won't take any cash from PACs or special interest types.

Comments

Go Jill! Between this and the polling showing her within the margin of error, she's on a roll.

[mod4nevada]

Wow! Maybe the people up north aren't as dumb as the people in Las Vegas make them out to be. Congrats Derby Campaign...you derserve it!

Angle's numbers are in now too -- $162,000 raised. Very impressive number, but still behind Derby. Looks like both the primary and general elections are going to go down to the wire!!!

[DavidNYC]

Gibbons had a crappy quarter - only $87K. So Derby beats all comers!

[JEB]

Gave money to Derby a while back... Can't wait to see how her race plays out.

Can't seem to get behind Hafen after she announced she is anti-choice. She is young, though. Perhaps she will be anti-choice in the same way Reid is anti-choice - pretty much in name only.