The last FEC reports before New Jersey’s June 2 primary election were due last night, and among other things, they show two leading Democratic candidates in competitive House primaries pulling further away from the pack.
In the 7th district, Rebecca Bennett reported raising $288,135 in the pre-primary period, which covered the span between April 1 and May 13. That’s almost as much as her three Democratic foes raised combined: Tina Shah raised $168,114, Brian Varela raised $99,756 (around half of which was self-funded), and Michael Roth raised $65,865.
Since launching her campaign, Bennett has raised a total of $2.9 million, an unprecedented sum at this point in the cycle for a New Jersey House challenger. Shah has raised $2.1 million, Varela has raised $2 million, and Roth has raised $1.2 million, though all of their totals have included substantial amounts of self-funding.
The pre-primary report, though, was when they started spending heavily on reaching out to voters: Bennett spent $950,462, Shah spent $937,066, Varela spent $1,074,103, and Roth spent $106,749. (And that’s not accounting for the large amounts of money spent by outside groups in the district, most of them either supporting or opposing Bennett.)
The swing district’s incumbent, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), was absent from Washington and the campaign trail during the entire fundraising period due to an unspecified illness, but he still reported raising $167,585.
Next door in the solid-blue 12th district, Adam Hamawy further expanded his financial lead in the packed race to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing). Hamawy raised $481,971 in the pre-primary period – more tan most of his foes have raised in total – and has surpassed $1 million overall; he’s also benefited from by far the largest amount of super PAC spending.
Behind him are Brad Cohen with $700,545 raised overall, Sue Altman with $490,068, Sam Wang with $465,174, Adrian Mapp with $430,668, and Squire Servance with $390,651; all of them besides Altman have boosted their totals with some self-funding. Jay Vaingankar has raised $285,300, Verlina Reynolds-Jackson has raised $282,598, and Shanel Robinson has raised $140,250.
On the Republican side, the most impactful contest in the state is in the 9th district, where Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) is seeking re-election, but neither Rosie Pino nor Tiffany Burress has raised huge amounts of money.
Pino outraised Burress $29,883 to $22,922 in the pre-primary period and $367,495 to $97,008 overall, though she also entered the race far earlier; neither had much left to spend as of May 13. (Pou, by contrast, has amassed $1.5 million.)
Republican fundraising has similarly struggled to take off in the contest to challenge Senator Cory Booker. Robert Lebovics has been the best fundraiser so far, raising $149,407 (much of it self-funded); Alex Zdan has raised $40,535, Justin Murphy has raised $15,454, and Richard Tabor has raised $10,615.
Lastly, in the Democratic primary for Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis)’s seat, Bayly Winder remains the best-funded candidate, raising $731,388 since entering the race last summer. Zack Mullock has raised $305,148, Tim Alexander has raised $80,691, and Terri Reese has raised $14,103.
