CA-33 Fundraising

The Q1 congressional fundraising numbers are out and the ones in CA-33 are really crazy.

Marianne Williamson $1,080,069
James Graf $1,003,390
David Kanuth $803,653
Wendy Greuel $672,215
Ted Lieu $621,762
Matt Miller $517,822
Elan Carr $358,624
Barbara Mulvaney $120,665

The first question I'm asking is who is James Graf? Graf is a Democrat and a businessman who apparently has a lot of money and is ready to spend it. He's put $1 million into his campaign. We saw with Bill Bloomfield in 2012, spending a lot of money here can generate votes, although Bloomfield spent a lot more than $1 million. The next question is who is David Kanuth. Even after reading his web page, I'm not sure. What I do know is that Kanuth reports that all $803,653 he received came from individual donations. There was no PAC money, party money, or candidate money. That's an unbelievable haul. Apparently KPCC is asking the same question. They didn't provide an answer. The FEC provides no detail on their website, but surely they'll scrutinize his list. Greuel, Lieu, and Miller also had big hauls. Williamson is running as NPP but all her positions put her to the left of the Democrats. So there's going to be a lot of competition for left wing votes.

There are a lot of Republican votes in this district and they'll come a lot cheaper than the Democratic ones. Elan Carr's fundraising would be excellent in any other district and he's fortunate he won't be competing for the same voters the Democrats are. It's certainly possible Democrats will go after Republican votes, but if Carr does a decent job, he'll lock those up. Two other Republicans, Kevin Mottus and Lily Gilani don't have fundraising up on the FEC site. It's not that they reported raising nothing. Their reports are absent. Perhaps they filed them late. From looking at Mottus' site, he seems like a Democrat who chose to run as a Republican. I have no idea if he's raising money. I know Gilani is raising money and I expect we'll see some on her report.

This primary is going to be crazy and I honestly not only can't tell you which candidates make Top Two, but also which parties do. It could be two Democrats, two Republicans, or Williamson and either a Democrat or Republican.