North Carolina: Cunningham Posts Disappointing $345,000 Quarter [View All]

[ccharles000]

Former North Carolina state Sen. Cal Cunningham (D) announced on Wednesday that his campaign raised $345,000 during the first quarter, an underwhelming figure for someone who was hyped by national party officials as the candidate to unseat Sen. Richard Burr (R) in the Tar Heel State this cycle.

Cunningham had about $478,000 on hand as of April 1. That puts him in a decent position in Democratic primary against Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, who had about $181,000 on hand, and attorney Ken Lewis, who had $94,000.

But it's a far cry from the $5.3 million in the bank that Burr reported after raising nearly $1.6 million in the first quarter.

Sensing weakness in his polling numbers back home, Democrats had high hopes of targeting Burr earlier this cycle. But with their favorite recruit faltering in the money chase and the political climate tipping more and more in the GOP's favor, it seems unlikely at this point that the national party will be able to spend the money to make North Carolina's Senate race competitive this cycle.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/eyeon2010/2010/04/cunningham-tktktk.html