Who is Funding the Dewhurst and Cruz Campaigns?

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, the two Republican candidates battling one another in a runoff for the U.S. Senate nomination, say the source of their opponent's funding is an important campaign issue.

Which campaign is drawing more donations from Texas voters? Which campaign is dominated by money from out-of-state groups? Neither answer is clear-cut.

That’s because the Federal Election Commission doesn’t require campaigns to report details about contributions of less than $200 from individuals. The funds raised from these "minor" donors are reported as one lump sum, and are referred to as "unitemized" in FEC lingo. Both campaigns declined requests to provide a complete list of their donors.

This makes determining the source of Cruz's funding especially difficult. One-fifth of all his fundraising — more than $1 million — has come from thousands of unitemized contributions.

Here's what we do know from the candidates' May 9 pre-primary filings: Looking solely at the money donated by individuals to both candidates, Dewhurst and Cruz are nearly even, raising $5.7 million and $5.6 million, respectively.

But of those contributions, only $118,000 of Dewhurst's contributions were reported as unitemized, compared to Cruz's $1 million. That means Cruz raised more money from small-dollar donors.

According to a Texas Tribune analysis of the candidates' itemized contributions (those that are more than $200), nearly all of the itemized $5.6 million that Dewhurst raised came from Texas contributors. Only 4.9 percent, or $258,000, came from out-of-state donors.

Cruz's numbers are much more varied. Of the $4.6 million in itemized individual contributions he received, 39.2 percent — $1.5 million — came from out-of-state contributors.

Dewhurst reported more contributions from political action committees than Cruz did: $610,000 compared with $106,000.

Both candidates have also put their own money into the race, though in vastly differing sums. As of the May 29 primary, Dewhurst had loaned his campaign more than $15 million, but paid himself back $5.25 million. Cruz invested about $500,000.

Apart from the money the two campaigns are spending on the race, outside groups have invested nearly $7 million in the contest so far, according to FEC data. Groups supporting Cruz reported spending more than those backing Dewhurst, $3.8 million, compared with $3 million. All of Dewhurst’s support has come from two Texas-based Super PACs that were created to help his campaign. Cruz’s support has come from a handful of national groups that have also been active in races in other states.

Both campaigns are making the source of campaign funds a key issue that is likely to stick around through the July 31 runoff. On Monday, Dewhurst released a web ad accusing Cruz of "gobbling up D.C. money."

In Kerrville last week, Cruz said that the race pits his army of small donors from around the country against deep-pocketed “lobbyists” from Austin and Washington, D.C., that support Dewhurst.

The Bottom Line: Dewhurst, with a net $10.25 million campaign loan to himself, is easily his own largest single source of funding. The majority of the money he has received from individuals has come from people who gave $200 or more, and most of that came from Texas.

Cruz has repeatedly bragged on the campaign trail that he has more than 20,000 donors, but because that number includes contributors who gave less than $200 (meaning they are not required to be disclosed), we have no choice but to trust him on that. Of the 3,700 contributors who gave Cruz $200 or more and appear in the disclosure reports, 39.2 percent are from out of state.

And when it comes to Super PACs, national groups have spent more than $3.8 million on Cruz, outpacing the $3 million spent by two Texas-based Super PACs supporting Dewhurst.

Cruz has a huge problem, and it's the very conservative East Texas counties. Dewhurst pulled over 50% in several of those counties, and came close in the rest. That's not good news for Cruz. I was quite surprised by this in the May primary, as I figured he would carry those counties. There's no way Cruz wins without carrying this area.

One problem, I would suggest, stems from a "tea party" PAC anchored in Tyler, TX. It is not doing Cruz any favors in this election, and in my opinion, is hurting him with shoo-in votes. Even very conservative voters don't appreciate certain people spewing venom, then quoting Scripture at the end. Cruz isn't doing this, but this group is, especially with local races, and it's carrying over into the Senate race and alienating voters.

Once the results came in, I started making calls to see what was going on over there. I've heard from many voters who said they voted for Dewhurst because of Ted's association with this group. His campaign is well aware of this issue, but they don't seem to have a problem with it. That's his choice, but it's going to hurt him.

I've talked to people who voted for Ted, and will vote for Ted again. I've talked to people who voted for Dewhurst, and will vote for Dewhurst again. I've talked to people who voted for Ted, but will now vote for Dewhurst. I have not talked to a single person who voted for Dewhurst in May, but will now vote for Ted. Not to say that it doesn't happen, but it's just what I've come across.

The best way I can describe what's going on with this group is how Michelle Bachman ran her primary race. I share her goal of smaller government and adherence to the Constitution. However, her delivery was horrible, and she came across as a bitchy woman. She also had no problem knee-capping every conservative in the race, yet wouldn't lay a finger on Mitt Romney. The impression she gave was that it was all about her, and not really about the movement. That didn't go unnoticed. The same goes for the person running this PAC in Tyler. It's all about her and not about the movement.

Just my 2 cents worth. And it may not even be worth that. :)

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