Love Pulls in Financial Support From Congressional Republicans
by Bob Bernick
10/11/2012 | 1007 views | 0 0 comments | 4 4 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Bob Bernick, Utah Policy Contributing Editor
Bob Bernick, Utah Policy Contributing Editor
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The worm has turned in Utah’s 4th Congressional District race as far as financial help from your fellow U.S. House members is concerned.

Used to be Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson could count on a number of Democratic House members contributing to his tough re-election campaigns every two years.

One analysis I did for the Deseret News some elections ago found that Matheson had gotten around $50,000 from a number of his then-colleagues.

Especially the so-called Blue Dog moderate-to-conservative representatives would give to Matheson.

But many, if not most, of those Blue Dog incumbents have either retired or been defeated over the last several elections. And Matheson has missed their political support on Capitol Hill and their financial support in his campaign account.

Now it’s his GOP challenger, Mia Love, who is getting all kinds of help from Republican congressmen and GOP House candidates like herself.

A review of Love’s July 2012 quarterly report by UtahPolicy finds that around 30 candidates or congressmen have donated to Love’s campaign this year.

The October quarterly Federal Election Commission reports are due out next week, and could show more of such contributions.

Those 30 individual GOP candidates and/or their own political action committees have donated nearly $35,000 to Love.

And considering that there are probable close to 435 Republicans running for the U.S. House this year (no doubt a few districts are unfilled by a GOP candidate and no doubt some GOP candidates don’t have extra cash themselves to give to Love), there could be a lot more cash coming to Love before Nov. 6.

Clearly, U.S. House Republican bosses have sent the word out: Give money to Mia.

Of course, that $35,000 dwindles compared to the tens of millions of dollars that is being spent by various special interest groups across the nation to get Love elected in Utah.

Pro-Love, anti-Matheson TV ads are ever present on Utah channels these days (and there are plenty of pro-Matheson, anti-Love TV ads as well).

She would be the first black Republican woman to ever serve in the U.S. House.

And if that sounds like a small demographic group, hey, Love got $250 from the Black Americans PAC. So there are at least a few more like Love out there somewhere.

Meanwhile, since his 2010 campaign (or over nearly two years) Matheson has received $25,000 from 14 Democratic U.S. House members.

Those include several members of House leadership (like Rep. Nancy Pelosi at $4,000) who Matheson wouldn’t be caught dead with in a joint campaign appearance in Utah.

Matheson is a leader in the now-much-smaller Blue Dog group. And the Blue Dog PAC has given Matheson $10,000 over the last two years.

Love sent out a press release Wednesday saying she has raised an impressive $1 million since July. She’ll need it.

Matheson’s last FEC filing shows he has over $1.2 million in cash as the pair race to the Nov. 6 election.
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