Cramer Leads NDGOP House Candidates In Fundraising

Some fundraising figures are in for the NDGOP’s House candidates, of which there are now six (Minot-area citizen DuWayne Hendrickson is running again this cycle). Public Service Commissioner Kevin Cramer and Shane Goettle, a former staffer for Senator John Hoeven, have put up some impressive numbers.

BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota Republican Kevin Cramer reports Monday that he’s raised $215,000 for his bid for the GOP endorsement to run for Congress.

Cramer’s Federal Election Commission report shows he’s spent almost $18,000 on his campaign through the end of last year. He has about $197,000 still in the bank.

Another Republican House candidate, Shane Goettle, reports raising almost $124,000 for his campaign so far.

Both Cramer and Goettle have already filed their reports with the FEC (Cramer’s is here, Goettle’s is here), and it’s pretty clear they want to brag.

According to the Associated Press report, PSC Brian Kalk (who formed his federal campaign in early 2011) is claiming that he raised $150,000 though he hasn’t yet filed his report. Cramer announced his campaign in early November, and Goettle announced his campaign in late November.

This means that, in the space of a few months, both Cramer and Goettle outpaced Kalk’s fundraising for most of a year.

Neither state Rep. Bette Grande nor state Rep. Kim Koppelman have released their fundraising figures yet (the FEC deadline isn’t until January 31st), but I wouldn’t expect either to have raised much more than Kalk.

Fundraising isn’t everything in a campaign, but as a measure of support it would seem as though the “front runners” in the House race at this point are Cramer and Goettle.

No word yet on Democrat Pam Gulleson’s fundraising, but I expect that if it were an impressive number she’d release it before the deadline. If it’s not impressive, she’ll dribble the report at the deadline and hope it’s overshadowed by the NDGOP nomination race.

My bet is on it not being very impressive.