Chris Gibson impresses with single donor support in second quarter

By Sam Foster
Via Politico
Hat Tip to UPR Readers (keep sending those great tips!)

It appears Democrat incumbent Scott Murphy is going to have his hands full this November.  Chris Gibson's campaign is touting an impressive 2^nd quarter of fundraising, which, according to the Politico, includes roughly $500,000 and 90% in individual donors.

Politico writer Maggie Haberman reports:

Chris Gibson, the Republican congressional hopeful going after Democratic Rep. Scott Murphy in NY-20, is reporting nearly $500,000 raised in the second quarter for his campaign, a source familiar with the filing tells me.

The source siad the $483,179 was raised from 1,530 donations, 90 percent of them individual donors and 10 percent organizations and PACS.

Nearly a quarter of the contributions were under $250, the source said, and 87 percent overall were from inside the bounds of New York State.
It wasn't immediately clear what the breakdown is for pre-general versus post-general.

Still, it's a hefty quarter during a period where Democrats, as has been widely reported, struggled to raise for the upcoming congressional races in New York City.
The Murphy seat is one of the House races that national Republicans are closely eyeing. Murphy won his seat in a special election after Kirsten Gillbrand was appointed to the U.S. Senate, but he is among the Democrats endanged by votes on health care legislation.

UPDATE: An aide to Gibson, who entered the race in March, said he's got $504,000 in cash-on-hand. His team said he's basically only been raising this quarter.

For those of you who are politically untrained, single, small-dollar donors are the equivalent of political manna from heaven.  It means that Chris Gibson is swelling in strong support from everyday voters and, here is the best part, they are predominantly district voters.  The remark from the Gibson aide is also important.  Mr. Gibson threw his hat into the congressional ring at the beginning in March, one month before the FEC's first quarter deadline.  So, this is the first full quarter of Gibson fundraising.

We are still waiting on Scott Murphy's quarterly filing.  However, with news of Mr. Gibson's success, I suspect that he'll wait until the July 15^th deadline before reporting his results.  First quarter filings from Scott Murphy showed that he had slightly less than 1.1 million cash on hand.  The possibility that Mr. Murphy was outraised by a challenging Republican candidate adds him to a list of NY Democrats who are being taken to task in fundraising efforts.  The list includes the likes of Mike Arcuri and John Hall.

Update:

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise lists Gibson as the likely "least wealthy" candidate in NY-20. Also, they report that Scott Murphy had filed an extension until mid August for filing his 2nd quarter fundraising. Its possible that Murphy wants to hold off the press cycle on how Gibson has outraised him in the hopes of touting an improving third quarter.

Update x2:

Times Union confirms that Chris Gibson outraised Stott Murphy in the 2nd quarter and by more than $100k. The writer reminds us that Scott Murphy has far more in cash on hand. However, this accomplishment isn't about who raises how much, its about how excited voters are to support Chris Gibson and Mr. Gibson won this round with a KO.