Posted on 04/18/2005 6:13:51 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has $3.4 million cash on-hand for her re-election campaign next year, according to campaign finance documents released Monday, but she has yet to draw a Republican challenger.
California's senior senator will be seeking her third full six-year term next year. She raised $513,000 over the first three months of 2005, bringing to $4.1 million her total raised for the election cycle, according to a Federal Election Commission report that Feinstein's office released Monday.
Her campaign has spent $1.8 million on operating expenses and has no debt, the report showed.
Consistently rated in polls as the state's most popular Democrat, the 71-year-old Feinstein would present a formidable challenge to any Republican in Democrat-leaning California. So far, none has announced their candidacy.
The primary is a little more than a year away - June 6, 2006, and the general election will be held Nov. 7, 2006.
Feinstein, the former mayor of San Francisco, was first elected to the Senate in 1992 to fill out the remaining term of Republican Pete Wilson, whom she'd unsuccessfully challenged for governor. Wilson had appointed state legislator John Seymour to replace him in the Senate, and Feinstein trounced Seymour after beating back a Democratic primary challenge from Gray Davis.
Two years later Feinstein faced Michael Huffington, who poured nearly $30 million of his own money into the race - about twice what Feinstein spent. She won narrowly, 47 percent to 45 percent. In her most recent race, in 2000, Feinstein easily beat then-Rep. Tom Campbell.
Old Di-Fi is 71, huh?
Guess retirement is out.
Hanging on til her last breath.
It doesn't matter, the GOP in CA will just roll over and play dead.
You mean we still have a GOP in CA?
Who knew?
Feinstein is clearly such an evil, hateful person you'd think there'd be plenty of folks wanting to run her out of town.
Arnold could have beaten both Dianne and Babs and would have done much more good for the state and party in D.C. than Sacramento where he is way over his head.
$3.4 Mil? DiFi musta found her hubbies change jar.
Not only that she's hooked so close to the Chicoms her steamed rice is red, and so corrupt that she literally trades worthless desert land to the government for northern CA land with a real gold mine on it.
I know she has said she isn't interested in running for office but I sure would like to see Condi Rice change her mind next year!
Thing is, Barbara Boxer is such a radical extremist, she makes Feinstein look reasonable.
Well, yes, Boxer is vicious as well, but both these ol'gals, Boxer and Feinstein, are hurtful, hateful people.
One has to be independantly wealthy to run for Senate. Or glad-hand for millions in expectation of selling one's soul.
Lies! It's a vicious and unsubstantiated rumor. The GOP evacuat--err abandon--err refocused their priorities long ago.
Those of us Freepers who claim to be in CA... we're the last holdouts before the Dem's complete total control of the West Coast. At that point, they'll hand CA over to Mexico in thanks. I'm starting to wonder if JimRob/FR aren't a gov't in exile. ;)
They'll soon find themselves on the ashbin of history along with the Whigs, Democrat-Federalists, Bull-Moose, Reform and other political parties. The Dems know. That's why they don't worry about W's win. It's merely a delay in their ultimate victory. They've already won the war for the future. It's just a matter of time.
The way things are looking, it's not clear at all that Arnold will be reelected should he choose to run next year.
Wrong. Arnold has something that he failed to use: The line-item veto. He could have balanced the state's budget just with this tool. He didn't need the Rep's help in the legislature.
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