One of the best ways to judge strength of candidates before an election is by the amount of money they are able to raise. Not only does it imply the quality and level of campaign they will be able to run, but it is a good measure of the success they will have when they begin communicating with voters. That’s because giving money is way more painful than voting, so if you can convince someone to do that, voters will likely follow.
Just in case you forgot, HD58 is the Democratic-leaning seat that was held be Simone Bell before she resigned in November. The election is a week away, so let’s check in on the three contenders.
Park Cannon leads the way with $17,843 raised. Kwame Thompson lags far behind at $3,875, and Ralph Long didn’t even file a report. The fine for that is $250, so I guess we can mark him down in the negative. Shocked? Don’t be, he’s been fined 17 times before. In fact, he’s been fined a total of $1,425, which is almost impressive.
So if you are going to handicap this race based on all the information we have now, it appears all bets are on Cannon. Except if you are betting on who will accrue the most ethics fines, in that race the smart money is on Long.