For political candidates, raising money isn’t always just about the next election. Sometimes running up a large campaign war chest is about thinking ahead beyond Election Day.
What happens if Senator Tim Kaine is elected vice president? Who will get his Senate seat? The leading contenders for that gig are Congressman Don Beyer and Congressman Bobby Scott. Both are Democrats and members of Congress. But the similarities stop there. Beyer is a freshman member and Scott is a veteran congressman. And, as Quentin Kidd at Christopher Newport University points out, there’s another significant difference.
“Don Beyer has raised $1.2 million more than Bobby Scott. Bobby Scott is a notoriously small fundraiser. He does not like raising money."
Campaign finance documents show Beyer has raised $1.6 million this election cycle. Scott, on the other hand, has raised less than half a million dollars. Jennifer Victor at George Mason University says those numbers might influence Governor Terry McAuliffe, who gets to fill the position.
“If I’m McAuliffe then I might look at look at the money and see that Beyer is a stronger candidate by at least one measure."
Fundraising ability could end up being an important point because whoever is appointed to the Senate seat in 2017 would have to run in a special later that year and then again in 2018. That means the ideal candidate would be able to raise large sums of money at a rapid pace.
