New Hampshire Senate candidate Scott Brown raised $275,000 in the 16 days between the launch of his exploratory committee and the end of March, a notably strong fundraising pace for the Republican.
{mosads}That sum came despite Brown not holding any fundraisers or paying any staff to work on raising money for him — simply from donations contributed to his website or via check in the mail, while he toured New Hampshire in his truck on a listening tour.
Colin Reed, Brown’s campaign manager, told WMUR the sum is evidence Brown’s message “was clearly resonating with voters.”
“The people of New Hampshire don’t want a senator who votes 99 percent of the time with President Obama and who cast the tie-breaking vote for Obamacare. They want new leadership, and that’s why you’re seeing the kind of support Scott received during the first two weeks of his listening tour,” he said.
While Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen had her best quarter yet from January through March, raising over $1.5 million and ending the quarter with $4.35 million cash in the bank, she still lagged Brown in terms of their daily fundraising paces.
WMUR points out that Brown raised $17,170 per day to Shaheen’s $17,088, a slightly faster daily pace even without his fundraising operation in the works.
Brown’s fundraising abilities were part of the reason Republicans worked to recruit him into the race, and see him as their best opportunity to take down Shaheen this fall. He’s facing three other Republican candidates in the primary.