Doug Burgum Gets Almost 70 Percent Of Reported Contributions From Out Of State, Including $100,000 From Bill Gates

The pre-primary filing deadline for North Dakota’s candidates is tomorrow, but the Burgum campaign has theirs in a day early and it’s pretty interesting stuff.

All together the campaign raised $931,332 in reportable contributions (those $200 and under do not have to be reported), including over $811,000 in the pre-primary report and another $124,150 in contributions reported on 48-hour reports, with $100,000 of that total coming from one William Gates III of Seattle, Washington.

From now until primary day the candidates will have to report all contributions over $500 within 48 hours.

You can read the full pre-primary report below, and the 48 hour reports here.

Of course, these reports really only show a fraction of Burgum’s campaign finances. We know that he’s spent over $1 million on broadcast advertising alone, not counting other types of advertising and campaign staff, etc., etc.

Burgum, who is a multi-millionaire, has said that he’s spending his own money on his campaign, only he doesn’t have to report any of that which explains why this fundraising number seems low in the context of his lavish campaign.

Because North Dakota’s campaign disclosure laws are far too lax, the candidates do not have to report any expenditure at all nor do they have to report what they’re spending out of their own pockets.

Anyway, looking at what has been reported, it’s worth noting that nearly 70 percent of Burgum’s contributions have come from outside of North Dakota.

Burgum had 162 individual contributors from inside North Dakota who gave $284,301.

His campaign had 81 individual contributors from outside of North Dakota who gave $647,301.

None of the other gubernatorial campaigns have filed their pre-primary reports yet.

Here’s the full pre-primary report:

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