3rd quarter: McCamley raised $66K; Kissling got $11K

Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley raised almost $66,000 during the third quarter of the year for his congressional run, while Al Kissling raised almost $11,000.

The amounts brought in by the two Democrats are far below what U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M. collected during the third quarter. According to his report, Pearce raised $251,021 during the quarter and spent $52,040, leaving him with $582,312 on hand.

Pearce is seriously considering dropping his re-election bid to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Pete Domenici. If that happens, McCamley is poised to be the frontrunner in the race for an open House seat.

McCamley, according to the report he filed this weekend with the Federal Election Commission, raised $65,755 and spent $13,462 during the third quarter. Running such a lean organization means he has raised just over $206,000 for the race and ended the quarter with almost $186,000 on hand.

“As a county commissioner I work every day to make sure that Doña Ana County spends funding as efficiently as possible. Furthermore, as someone who is not personally wealthy and has to live within a budget, I know that we must spend every dollar as intelligently as possible,” McCamley said of his campaign’s financial status. “We’re saving our money for when it becomes really necessary. So far, we’ve kept the staff small, and we’ll only spend on things that we think really advance our chances to win. Plain and simple.”

Kissling, according to his report, raised $10,858 during the quarter and spent $10,393, leaving him with $6,050 on hand. He has raised a total of $33,752 this election cycle and spent $34,380, and also carries a $35,000 debt to himself from his failed 2006 attempt to unseat Pearce.

Kissling acknowledged his light fundraising during the first three quarters of the year, but said that has changed.

“We just started trying to seriously raise money the first of October,” Kissling said. “I feel good about having people on the ground working on petitions and helping us get established.”

That’s somewhat of a shift for Kissling, who said three months ago that the money didn’t matter. Today, he noted McCamley’s fundraising, and said defeating him will be “an uphill battle.”

“We’re ready to go against Pearce. That’s easy, I think, this time,” Kissling said. “But the problem is to win the primary.”

Pearce’s campaign finance director couldn’t be reached for comment.

More details

For McCamley, the amount raised is quite a dip from the $140,000 he raised during the second quarter. Though fundraising for most candidates across the nation was less during the third quarter than the second, McCamley’s decrease of about $74,000 between second- and third-quarter fundraising contrasts with Pearce’s increase of about $6,000. McCamley’s contributions from July to September included $59,255 from individuals and $6,500 from political action committees. Kissling has received no PAC money.

Pearce’s contributions included $203,000 from individuals – the vast majority of them living in the Second Congressional District – and $48,000 from PACs. McCamley’s report lists a number of contributors from the Second Congressional District, many from around New Mexico and others from the East Coast, where he held a couple of fundraisers during the quarter. Most of Kissling’s contributors live in the Las Cruces area, though a few also live out of state.

On to the fourth quarter

Kissling said he has hired a new webmaster and will unveil a new Web site in the coming days. He pledged a meatier finance report in January.

“We’ll be doing better this quarter,” he said.

McCamley, who was recently endorsed by three state representatives and one member of the Public Regulation Commission, said he is gaining momentum going into the fourth quarter.

“We’ll continue putting together the resources we need to win,” he said. “With our recent endorsements, people see that we’re gaining momentum, which helps us bring in more money.”