2010 Campaign Finance Report for MN House District 53A

The Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board published its 2010 candidate campaign finance reports.

I have no axe to grind here, but I thought readers would be interested in seeing a comparison of the candidate reports for 53A. I started with a cash balance of over $5000 that is not included in the comparison. My opponent loaned herself $5,000 (the maximum allowed) and paid it back; both of her transactions are listed in the chart. The large "non-campaign" disbursements from my campaign mostly came from a session wrap-up mailing in the spring of 2010.

The one thing that differentiated the two campaigns is the heavy reliance on big donors by the GOP candidate. Sixty-three percent of my contributions came from donors who gave less than $200. My opponent collected 33% from this group and 67% from donors who contributed $200 or more.

I haven't checked yet, but the amount of "independent expenditures" made by outside groups and political parties was likely greater than $50,000 and perhaps as much as $100,000.

Receipts	Gardner		Runbeck
Individual contributions	21,931		24,701
contributions > $200	8,011		16,510
contributions < $200	13,920		8,191
Lobbyist & PAC contributions	-		850
Political party contributions	5,000		3,505
Public subsidy	6,412		5,634
Loans payable	-		5,000
	$ 33,343		$ 39,690
Disbursements
campaign	31,166		31,939
non-campaign	4,424		266
other	-		6,500
	$ 35,590		$ 38,705