By Katy Sword
The Columbian
A last-minute look at contributions flooding into the 3rd Congressional District shows the race isn’t slowing down.
Candidates must file a pre-general election report spanning Oct. 1-17. Those filings with the Federal Election Commission were available Friday.
The 3rd Congressional District includes Pacific County.
In that time, contributions to Democratic challenger Carolyn Long outpaced those to Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, three times over.
Long brought in an additional $685,267 in contributions, bringing her election cycle total to $2,919,736.
Meanwhile Herrera Beutler took in another $209,521 in contributions, putting her total at $2,241,466.
In the last quarterly report, Long reported $1.2 million more in contributions than Herrera Beutler.
In the last two weeks, Herrera Beutler spent $551,492, just $200,000 less than she spent last quarter.
Long, however, spent more in the last two weeks than she did all of last quarter. Her expenses totaled $1,148,261, compared with more than $734,000 between July and October.
Looking at Herrera Beutler’s last election, in 2016, when she easily beat Democrat Jim Moeller, both fundraising and spending are up. At this point in time in 2016, the Southwest Washington representative had amassed $1,268,047 in contributions and spent $1,153,590. She ended the reporting period in 2016 with more than $800,000 cash on hand.
This election cycle, both candidates are spending more of what they have. Herrera Beutler has about $454,000 left in the coffers compared with Long’s $700,000.
The ad buys from independent committees targeting the race are also picking up. On Friday, the National Republican Congressional Committee released an $800,000 ad buy targeting Long. The ad comes just a day after a $500,000 ad by Winning for Women was released in support of Herrera Beutler.
Across the aisle, Women Vote! spent just more than $400,000 on an ad against Herrera Beutler that was released on Tuesday.
Long’s campaign has been critical of the last-minute buys supporting Herrera Beutler, arguing that it’s proof Republican backers are nervous about the race.
“Our tremendous grass-roots support throughout Washington state shows that our message is resonating with people in the district while Herrera Beutler has to rely on Paul Ryan’s PAC and the NRCC to carry her message,” said Michelle Thimios, Long’s campaign manager. “Meanwhile, we’ve seen record volunteer turnout from folks in Southwest Washington committed to going door to door to counteract the GOP’s misleading ads.”
Herrera Beutler’s campaign spokesperson, Angeline Riesterer, said they will continue to execute their campaign plan and “remain confident we’ll have the necessary resources to share our message and win this race.”
Voting began last week and continues through Nov. 6.
