Steve Pearce (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., raised more than half a million dollars from July to September for his bid to retake his old seat from Democrat Harry Teague.
Pearce raised $507,865 during the third quarter of 2009, according to the report he filed with the Federal Election Commission. He spent about $48,000 and ended the quarter with $459,612.80 on hand.
The Pearce campaign said 80 percent of his contributions came from 1,100 New Mexicans. According to the report, $452,395.06 came from individual donors, and the other $50,450 came from political action committees.
“I am humbled by the support and encouragement I have received from the people of New Mexico. This campaign is about them – not me,” Pearce said in a news release. “It is about stopping the runaway liberal spending policies that are burdening future generations. It’s about fighting for jobs, economic opportunity and traditional values.”
Overall, Pearce had contributions from 1,364 individual donors. Pearce raised more money from individual donors than all four GOP gubernatorial candidates in New Mexico combined, not counting the loans two of those candidates made to their own campaigns.
“Our report not only signals the high level of grassroots support for Pearce and his conservative principles, but it also serves as a repudiation of the liberal job-killing policies that Harry Teague is actively supporting in Washington,” Pearce spokesman Paul Ciaramitaro said. “New Mexicans are rejecting Teague’s vote for the catastrophic cap-and-trade legislation and they are serving notice that they will not put up with his inability to create jobs and economic opportunity in the district.”
Federal campaign finance reports are due Thursday, and Teague hasn’t yet filed his. He ended the second quarter of 2009 with about $574,000 on hand after raising about $330,000.
Update, 7:20 p.m.
From Josh Geise, executive director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico:
“Steve Pearce was always a better fundraiser than he was a congressman. Pearce’s six years as a Washington insider taught him that it is going to take a lot of money to convince the voters of the 2nd Congressional District to forget about his record… or at least to forget his ties to the rampant corruption that plagued his Republican leaders, and the $14,600 in congressional pay raises that Steve Pearce happily accepted as he helped the federal debt grow by over $2 trillion during his years in Washington. Given his past, no amount of money will make Steve Pearce a better representative for New Mexico in the future.”