Governor’s race finance reports are out and Governor Edwards has 9.6 million cash on hand, while Republicans Eddie Rispone and Congressman Abraham have 9.8 and 1.3 million dollars respectively.
John Bel Edwards was barred from fundraising during the legislative season, but UL Lafayette Political Science Professor Pearson Cross says the gov had already built up a substantial warchest.
“Not that much has changed. We still see Edwards with kind of an advantage because he’s an incumbent, because he’s been raising money for four years because he knew this was going to be a tough race.”
Edwards is the only candidate so far to run statewide TV ads.
Congressman Ralph Abraham, the leading Republican in the so far limited polling available, raised 800,000 dollars during the most recent fundraising period. Cross says he’s picking up steam, but…
“Although time is short, Congressman Abraham needs to continue to raise significant dollars, and he needs outside groups to come in.”
Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone has reportedly dumped 10 million dollars of his own money into the campaign. Cross says Rispone is running out of time to boost his name recognition.
“Will Eddie Rispone say, yea I really want to spend ten million and I think it is going to be a good expense? It appears that he is planning to do so but certainly we haven’t seen that yet, and time is getting short.”
Rispone raised 277,000 dollars from contributions during that period.
