Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Brian Colón (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Brian Colón is off to a quick start, having already raised more than $100,000.
Colón announced the fundraising number in an e-mail he sent to supporters early today.
“In less than one month we passed the magical $100,000 mark in our fundraising efforts,” the e-mail states.
That includes more than $75,000 Colón has raised through two events — a kickoff event attended by more than 500 people in Albuquerque earlier this month that netted Colón’s campaign more than $50,000, and, according to today’s e-mail, a second fundraiser on Friday in which the campaign “surpassed our goal of raising $25,000 in an evening.”
Colón has also raised almost $20,000 through the online fundraising site ActBlue.
Colón has four other fundraisers planned before the campaign finance reporting period ends on Oct. 5. The e-mail says Colón’s campaign has focused on fundraising “to ensure we will have a strong report and compete with candidates who have been raising money nearly two months before we entered the race.”
Other candidates have not been touting their fundraising numbers as openly as Colón, so how his fundraising matches up with others isn’t clear. But $100,000 is a historically impressive amount of money to raise so quickly in a lieutenant governor primary race.
In addition to Colón, those who have formally entered the race are Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano, state Sens. Linda Lopez and Gerald Ortiz y Pino of Albuquerque, State Rep. Jose Campos of Santa Rosa, and Lawrence Rael, executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments.
Sen. Tim Eichenberg, D-Albuquerque, has also been making rumblings about running or considering running, but he has not formally declared his candidacy.
Rael TV ads in the news
Meanwhile, Rael has been in the news lately because of 30-second TV spots that could help build his name ID. The TV spot being paid for by the Mid-Region Council of Governments is about motorist safety at railroad crossings.
Rael is the man who appears in the TV spot. According to The Santa Fe New Mexican, the ads cost the state agency $8,500 to produce and are running for six weeks on cable TV and one broadcast station.
Rael told the newspaper the ads are about safety, not his candidacy, and began running before he formally entered the lieutenant governor’s race.
From the newspaper:
“But pollster Brian Sanderoff of Research & Polling, Inc. said Friday that the best way for a candidate to build up name recognition is a 30-second television spot.
“These ads in particular, Sanderoff said, will help Rael because it links his job to the Rail Runner, which, the pollster said, is a popular program. The Mid-Region Council of Governments is the lead agency in the implementation of the Rail Runner.”