Monday, July 16, 2007

Burton Getting Help From Colleagues

Demonstrating the benefit of incumbency, U.S. Rep. Dan Burton (R) has raised nearly $61,500 for his re-election primary campaign against Dr. John McGoff from his GOP colleagues in the House like U.S. Rep. Mike Pence (R) according to Sylvia Smith of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. Burton has raised $214,754 during the spring, leaving him with $836,383 in cash on hand. That compares to the $70,927 McGoff raised during the same period, leaving him with $115,162 in cash on hand, which is still impressive for a challenger.

According to Smith, Burton received close to $140,000 from PACS, including Credit Union National Association, $10,000; and $5,000 apiece from the Associated General Contractors, Citizens United, Conseco, the National Automobile Dealers Association, National Action Committee and U.S.-Cuba Democracy. McGoff raised $7,500 from PACs, which included $2,500 apiece from the Indiana Dental Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Dental Association. Tad Miller of Indianapolis gave the maximum individual contribution to McGoff of $2,300. Christine and Michael Merchant of Noblesville each kicked in $2,300 to Burton's campaign.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didn't I see earlier in June that the McGoff campaign said they would raise $200,000 by the end of the quarter.

Looks like they didn't meet expectations. This doesn't inspire a lot of confidence for McGoff's ability to knock off Burton

Anonymous said...

Now that Dan's office manager has chimed in...

This won't e a media campaign. This will be won door-to-door and with direct mail.

You can run an effective direct mail operation in a district like this, with $300K. Very effective.
Drop in some inexpensive radio the last two weeks and it can be done.

Now if someone could jsut take out his fat lazy brother.

Jacob Perry said...

Gary, weren't you speculating earlier that McGoff would raise gobs of money from pharm's in his evil attempt to give unbridled power to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries? You even smarmingly insinuated that it would be easier, being an M.D. and all.

I guess the boogieman didn't exist, though I don't expect to see an apology nor a retraction from you any time soon.

Say hi to your uncle Dan for me.. although given his personal history, you are about the right age..., nah, never mind.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Scribe, I speculated McGoff would raise most of his money from the health care industry and that included Big Pharma. He has indeed raised the bulk of his money from the health care industry. To suggest as you do in your snarky post that I'm somehow promoting Burton is completely baseless. Anyone who reads this blog knows I've been very critical of the Burton brothers. If McGoff were a trial lawyer like John Edwards, I would have speculated he would raise a lot of money for his campaign from trial lawyers just as Edwards has done in all of his campaigns. If you're going to attack me, at least get your facts straight. And again, you continue to spew your insults while remaining anonymous. Aren't you the brave one?

Jacob Perry said...

Give me a break, and spare me the righteousness while you're at it, Gary.

The bulk of McGoff's money (according to your post) comes from Dentists and Psychiatrists, not quite members of the grand conspiracy you were attempting to suggest. Your sad attempt to smear McGoff by trying to tie him into some attempt to screw us all over was obvious. I called you on it then, I call you on it again now.

When you've been around this town as long as I have and fought as many wars here locally as I have, you'd be concerned about maintaining your anonymity as well.

Do you attack the folks at Polis Politics, Indy Undercover or The Digital Farmer's Blog for maintaining their privacy? Think they have a good reason as well?

Of course, none of us are trying to raise our own profiles or attract business through blogging, so perhaps there's no comparison.

Anonymous said...

I don't sense any rightousness. Maybe I'm missing something.

The local Republican establishment has itself to thank for this Burton mess. Back when Danny Boy ran for Congress the first time, the Republican machine put up a candidate who thought he could mail it in. Dan worked hard, and won.

And from that date forward, the GOP followed their 11th Commandment: say no ill of a fellow Republican.

He's shot pumpkins in his backyard, he's taken questionable foreign trips on the tab of foreign agents not necessarily friendly to the US, he's missed important votes to play golf. On the personal side, he just married his late wife's doctor. Fodder for big-time gossip. And, he's been a skirt-chaser for 35 years.

Yet the Republicans chose to live with him rather than oppose him in this 70% GOP district.

He's a national embarrassment. Always has been. This is not new news.

This time, I sense he's going down. Finally.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Look, Scribe, I'm not McGoff's PR person, but I suspect his campaign believes they've gotten more than a fair shake on this blog. His campaign manager hasn't complained to me, and I don't believe Dr. McGoff shares your sentiments in the least. And how do you know I don't know who is blogging at Polis and IndyUndercover. And DigitalFarmer was long ago outed.

Jacob Perry said...

My point wasn't whether McGoff has received a fair shake or not. My point was you tried to paint him with a particular crush, and that has proven to be incorrect. I was simply curious about whether you'd be man enough to retract your statement, or at least correct it?

My, aren't we the little name-dropper? What makes you think I, or others don't know those identities as well? There are people who know mine, I simply choose not to make it public. There are those of us out there who aren't trying to raise our own profile in the public arena, therefore we stay anonymous.

I was going to suggest blogging may be good for your business, but I doubt most of your clients are avid readers of local blogs, especially considering most can't even read their own language.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if the Scribe is actually reading the newspaper or not. As the Star reported, McGoff's money is largely coming from Eli Lilly (and other docs), with 10 Execs giving him money- including David Lewis (a top lobbyist).

I have no love for Burton, but Lilly has hated him for a long time for supporting negotiated drug prices for the federal government health insurance program.

McGoff will have some trouble raising money- as he did this quarter (and spent over half) and he's going to have to rely on Danny's enemies. That means he's going to have to get money from the pharmaceutical companies.

Gary R. Welsh said...

From today's Star:

"McGoff raised $7,210 from 15 Lilly employees who gave at least $200 each during the past three months. But McGoff has not received a donation from the company's political action committee or from CEO Sidney Taurel. Burton has battled Lilly over congressional attempts to let individuals import prescription drugs from other countries where they often sell for less.
In addition to Lilly, McGoff has relied heavily on his ties to fellow doctors and others in the medical community to raise money in preparation for the Republican Party primary in May."

Jacob Perry said...

I was simply quoting from your piece, nothing more than that. Funny that it took my calling you out to bring up those facts. Why not mention those facts earlier.