Laughing In The Face Of Ben Bentzin’s Poverty & Other Filing Notes
By Vince Leibowitz on Jul 18, 2006 in 2006 Texas Elections
Remember Ben Bentzin? He’s running against State Rep. Donna Howard in the Austin-based HD-48. Well, after getting his behind handed to him on a silver platter in the special election this spring, Bentzin has a whopping $20 cash-on-hand according to the most recent Texas Ethics Commission filings. It makes one wonder how serious a campaign Bentzin will be running.
In terms of the Governor’s race, Perry has more than $10 million on hand, with Strayhorn close behind with $8 million, and Bell with $654,501 on hand. Bell raised over $1.6 million from January through June, which shows his fund-raising power is steadily increasing.
Of course, Perry’s getting his money from the billionaire elite: Bo Pilgrim ($35,000); T. Boone Pickens ($25,000) and Bob Perry ($25,000).
Strayhorn raised about $3 million in the six-month period.
Strayhorn got a couple of interesting donations: $25,000 from Tony Sanchez (yes the same one who ran for Governor as a Democrat in 2002) and $25,000 from former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes.
The only good thing about the Sanchez donation to Strayhorn is that now the Perry campaign can take all of the ads against Tony Sanchez it has in its vault and rework them to use against Carole Strayhorn. After all, if, in the Perry Campaign’s eyes, Sanchez was a money launderer for drug lords, wouldn’t Strayhorn now be taking money from a drug lord money launderer? Ohhh…I’ll bet the Genuses at Perry HQ, hadn’t even thought of that yet.
Of especially interesting note is that, of the $1.55 million Friedman raised, more than half a million of that came in through his “online store.” That means that half a million of Kinky’s cash isn’t exactly “supporter” donations, but rather money from people who just want shirts, stickers, etc. After all, someone in Michigan buying a “Why The Hell Not” tee-shirt doesn’t exactly translate into a vote for The Kinkster.
That also means he’s raised almost a million from small donors, the biggest, $1400,from a Kerrville bookstore. Sounds like righteous grassroots to me.