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Monday: Coleman, Ciresi stockpile money for Senate runs
Norm Coleman and Mike Ciresi report impressive totals. Al Franken's are yet to come.
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WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Norm Coleman raised more than $1.5 million for the second consecutive quarter in his bid to retain his U.S. Senate seat, his campaign announced Monday.
Coleman's campaign has nearly $4 million on hand after two quarters of fundraising for the 2008 race. The second quarter ended June 30, and filings with the Federal Election Committee are due July 15.
Minneapolis attorney Mike Ciresi plans to report fundraising of $735,000 since beginning his bid for the DFL nomination in May, press secretary Leslie Sandberg said. The Ciresi campaign will report $625,000 on hand.
Ciresi and his wife, Ann, each have contributed $4,600 to the campaign and plan to report a $10,000 table at the Humphrey Day Dinner as a contribution.
"We feel very good about this," Sandberg said of the campaign's total. "... We feel like we're going to have enough funds to be competitive."
Seventy-three percent of Ciresi's money comes from Minnesota donors, Sandberg said. Nearly all of it has come from individual donors.
The figures continue a pattern in which fundraising for the 2008 election is running well ahead of collections by candidates in the 2006 race. Together, Coleman and Ciresi have raised as much in the first half of this year as all the major Senate candidates had reported at this point in 2005. And DFL hopeful Al Franken has yet to reveal his second quarter totals.
Franken's campaign declined to release preliminary campaign numbers for this quarter but recently garnered the support of the Teamsters Joint Council 32 and Local 120. The council represents more than 50,000 people in Minnesota, and the local is the largest in the state.
"The only number we are willing to release is that we have 30,000 donors," Franken spokesman Andy Barr said.
In the first quarter, Franken raised $1.35 million. Much of Franken's first-quarter funds came from the entertainment industry. "Seinfeld" writer and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star Larry David, comedian Bill Maher, Craig's List creator Craig Newmark, and actors Kevin Bacon and Tom Hanks have donated in the first quarter.
The major difference between Franken and Coleman's fundraising has been in the amount donated by political action committees. In the first quarter, Franken received $18,000 from PACs or other committees, while Coleman took in more than $470,000. A spokesperson for Ciresi said he may have received one PAC donation.
Jake Sherman • 202-408-2723 • jsherman@startribune.com
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