Democratic House Candidate Chase Iron Eyes Has More Debt Than Cash In First Fundraising Report
TOM STROMME/Tribune Chase Iron Eyes speaks at his booth at the 2016 North Dakota Democratic-NPL state convention where he is seeking the party's nomination for Congress. The convention continues Saturday in Bismarck.
Before the general election campaigns even begin in earnest it seems the campaign of North Dakota Democratic House candidate Chase Iron Eyes is already deep in a financial hole.
According to his pre-primary fundraising report filed with the FEC, which covers all the fundraising he’s done cycle to date, the candidate has raised just $33,892. He ended the reporting period with $19,214.62 in cash on hand but reporting already $45,071.91 in debts and obligations.
Most of the debt is owed to consulting and training organizations.
Compared to previous Democratic campaigns for the U.S. House in our state, Iron Eyes is in tough shape. In 2014 the George Sinner campaign ended the pre-primary reporting period with $181,203.10 in cash on hand and just over $1,000 in debt.
In 2012 Pam Gulleson reported $313,263.91 in cash on hand in her pre-primary report, and no debt.
Iron Eyes has had a rocky go of it so far in 2016. He was a last minute recruit for the Democrats, who have struggled to find candidates for their ballot slots this cycle, and his campaign announcement was somewhat overshadowed by reports of past felonies, a white washing of his social media accounts, and a nude picture of him which found its way to the internet.
I suspect, given his lack of financial support, that the usual crowd of financial backers for Democratic candidates aren’t finding Mr. Iron Eyes to be a credible candidate worth investing in. Though Iron Eyes did receive $7000 from Senator Heidi Heitkamp, including $5000 from her Dakota Prairie PAC and $2000 from her Senate campaign.
Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Cramer hasn’t exactly put a lot of time into fundraising so far. He reported raising just over $99,000 in his pre-primary report, which was just enough to cover over $93,000 in expenses. But he ended the reporting period with over $572,000 in cash on hand and zero debt.
Cramer probably isn’t raising a lot of money because he doesn’t really feel like he has to. This race is shaping up to be a laugher.
