Barletta Campaign Finances Still a Disaster
Monday, July 19th, 2010The latest campaign finance numbers have been released, and as expected, Lou Barletta continues to under perform. The latest report by the FEC shows that the Barletta Campaign is operating with a massive debt and has more debt than cash on hand. This shouldn’t be news to anyone, though, because Lou Barletta has always been a horrible fund raiser and his previous Congressional campaigns (all of which ended in loss) all amassed huge debt. If these numbers are a sign of things to come for Barletta, he’s in trouble.
According to the FEC, Mayor Barletta has $236,807 in cash on hand. He’s already spent $340,748 and now has a debt of $263,170. If you are Lou Barletta, or one of his supporters, these numbers should really concern you. What these numbers show is that 1.) Barletta is burning through cash at a rate that he simply can’t maintain and 2.) The Barletta Campaign cash/debt ratio is bad and getting worse. But wait, it gets worse. Once you factor in the finances of Barletta’s opponent, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, it becomes clear that Barletta has big problems.
For his part, Congressman Kanjorski has $1,058,311 in cash on hand. He’s spent $638,923 already and his campaign has $0 in debt. Simply put, Kanjorski is burying Barletta in terms of cash. Clearly, Kanjorski has a massive competitive advantage. He can afford to run more ads and keep them up longer than Barletta. Barletta, on the other hand, has to keep his spending tightly controlled. If he spends too much too fast, he will run out of money before November. Also, he will struggle to respond to any negative advertising that Kanjorski can, and probably will, throw his way. Forget remaining competitive, against these numbers, and with the limited resources he has available, Mayor Barletta and his Congressional Campaign will struggle to remain relevant.
With this in mind, I find it mind boggling that Lou Barletta is actually trying to spin these numbers, trying to imply he has some sort of financial edge over Paul Kanjorski. In a press release, which can be found on Barletta’s website, Mayor Lou brags about the fact that his fund raising “out paced” Kanjorski’s this past quarter. The obvious response to this is that Kanjorski doesn’t really need to spend much time on fund raising. He already has over a million dollars in cash and zero campaign debt. Barletta then tries to further spin the numbers, again trying to imply that he has Kanjorski against the ropes, by pointing out that Kanjorski is “$1 million behind where he was in 2008.” Um, so what? Considering what he’s up against, I’d say that Kanjorski is in great shape. As the saying goes, he could buy and sell Barletta’s Campaign multiple times over. Barletta will be lucky to get his cash on hand up to what Kanjorski has already spent.
Mayor Barletta can release all the press releases he wants, spinning the numbers however he likes. The truth of the matter is, however, that the Barletta Campaign is operating with a huge and growing debt and is burning through money faster than they can raise it. This isn’t spin. This is what the numbers, as reported by the Barletta Campaign to the FEC, indicate. Lou Barletta’s Congressional Campaign, like the city that he has run for over a decade, is in serious financial trouble and no amount of wishful thinking or rose-colored press releases can fix that. Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress. We can’t afford it and, apparently, neither can he.
See also: Barletta Accepts Money from Extremist Groups and Why Does Barletta Still Support BP?
-Dan Cheek
StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com











