Two GOP Challengers Have More Cash Than McHenry (CQ Politics)
Every fundraising quarter there are a handful incumbents who raise eyebrows by allowing a pesky challenger to outraise them. But during the 4th quarter, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) accomplished the even rarer feat of being outraised by two challengers.
And what's even more interesting is that both those challengers are fellow Republicans.
McHenry raised about $112,000 during the fourth quarter of 2009 and had about $149,000 in cash on hand as of Dec. 31.
Dentist and Iredell County Commissioner Scott Keadle topped those totals with about $270,000 in receipts from October to December and about $274,000 in the bank at the end of 2009.
Another Republican, entrepreneur Vance Patterson, reported $250,000 in receipts and the same amount in cash on hand at the end of 2009.
Both challengers were able to outperform McHenry in the money chase by reaching deep into their own pockets.
Keadle -- who filed for the race in September and also reported more receipts and cash on hand than the Congressman at the end of the third quarter -- has loaned his campaign some $485,000 so far this cycle with $235,000 of that coming in the fourth quarter.
Patterson, who filed for the race in late December, loaned his campaign all of the $250,000 he reported raising.
McHenry, meanwhile, would have had more money in the bank if he hadn't spent $50,000 last quarter repaying himself for previous campaign loans, (which he still had $150,000 worth of on Dec. 31). McHenry also raised more money in the fourth quarter of 2009 than any of his four other North Carolina GOP House colleagues.
But regardless of those circumstances the fact remains that with a little over four months to go before the North Carolina primary McHenry was in the third place in the 10th district money chase.
Keadle -- who earned the Republican nomination to run against Democratic Rep. Mel Watt (N.C.) in 1998 but went on to lose that race by 14 points -- said he's conducted polling that shows McHenry is vulnerable to a challenge from the right.
"The Congressman talks to the right but doesn't do anything to the right," Keadle said. "He voted to increase the budget in 2006. ... He was talking about steroids in baseball when he should have been talking about sealing the borders.
McHenry's spokesman Josh Kahn said the Congressman's campaign is not worried about raising the funds it will need in the primary.
"In light of the tough economy, we're pleased with our fundraising and our chances in the next election," Kahn said. "Patrick's done what he said he'd do, and the voters in Western North Carolina know that. He's just as upset about what's happening in Washington as his constituents are."
CQ Politics currently rates the race as Safe Republican.
Eichenbaum Wins Hometown Straw Poll in Cherokee County (Thunder Pig)
According to Dr. Dan Eichenbaum [link] he has won the straw poll at an event hosted by the 9-12 Project group he helped form.
Here are the numbers:
91 Dan Eichenbaum 61.49%
38 Kenny West 25.68%
16 Greg Newman 10.81%
02 Ed Krause 1.35%
01 Undecided 0.68%
This is the second straw poll of which I am aware. The first was conducted at an event hosted by the Buncombe County Republican Party on December 14, 2009. Here are the results from that poll...
37 Dan Eichenbaum 39.36%
22 Ed Krause 23.40%
19 Scott Stump 20.21%
12 Kenny West 12.77%
3 Undecided 3.19%
1 Greg Newman 1.06%
We won't have a full picture of what is going on until we have an event at which all the candidates appear together, which may be later this month or sometime in March, if what I am hearing through the grapevine is true.