Apr 27 2008
Dole Challengers Face Cash Crunch
WASHINGTON — Democratic Senate candidate Jim Neal’s campaign was nearly broke heading into the crucial final weeks of the N.C. primary season while opponent Kay Hagan shored up her campaign with personal money, records released Friday show.
Neal, a financial consultant from Chapel Hill, and Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, are vying to take on Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., in November.
Neal had $18,000 in cash as of April 16. Since his campaign began, he has raised $249,000, including a $120,000 loan from himself, according to campaign finance reports on file with the Senate Office of Public Records.
Hagan had $317,000 in the bank, including a $50,000 personal loan she made at the end of the quarter.
“It shows her commitment to the campaign,” her spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said of the loan. “This is a race she’s running because she truly believes she can be an effective voice for North Carolinians in Washington and she doesn’t feel like Elizabeth Dole has been doing that,” Flanagan said.
For every dollar Hagan took in since January, Dole has raised two — $901,000 compared with $1.8 million.
The lagging in fund raising tells me that state Democrats don’t consider Liddy Dole to be all that vulnerable.
