April 09, 2012 07:38 PM UTC

Huge Fundraising Quarter for Pace

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• by: Colorado Pols

Democrat Sal Pace has separated himself from other Congressional challengers in Colorado as the most likely to oust an incumbent in November. Today his campaign announced that he had raised $280,000 in Q1, which qualifies as the most successful quarter of any CD-3 challenger since the 2000 redistricting (the previous record was John Salazar’s $153,177 raised in Q1 2004.

Incumbent Republican Rep. Scott Tipton has thus far shown weak fundraising numbers, though his Q1 results are not yet available. Given Tipton’s multitude of policy problems, he can’t afford — literally — to let Pace keep winning the fundraising battle.

Full press release from Pace campaign after the jump.

Pace Raises Over $280,000 In First Quarter,

Sets New Fundraising Record

Pueblo, CO – In the most recent fundraising quarter, Congressional Candidate Sal Pace raised over $280,000, setting yet another record fundraising quarter for a challenger in Colorado’s Third District. He will also report over $520,000 in cash on hand, demonstrating his ability to compete this November. In the quarter Pace had over 1,400 individual donors, with 90 percent of those contributions coming from Coloradans, demonstrating the growing grassroots support and momentum of Pace’s campaign.

“Our fundraising shows that people are fed up with the partisan politics that have gridlocked Washington and our message of commonsense representation is spreading across the district,” said Sal Pace. “We are going to continue to run a campaign that focuses on jobs and a strong economy, not the partisan ideology that the incumbent has supported in Washington D.C.”

Pace went on to note, “contributions soared after our opponent voted to cut Medicare benefits in order to pay for a special interest tax break for multi-millionaires.”

This record-setting haul occurred despite that the Pace for Congress campaign did not accept contributions from registered Colorado lobbyists or organizations with affiliates who lobby before the Colorado State House since the legislative session commenced on January 11th.

Details about Pace’s Fourth Quarter fundraising numbers:

     1464 individuals contributed to Pace’s campaign in the first quarter, bringing the campaign total to more than 2700 individual donors since June 1st;

      90 percent of all individual donors reside in Colorado;

      More than 88% of all individual contributors gave $200 or less to the Pace campaign;

Historical Overviews of CD-3 Non-Incumbents First Quarter Raised Totals

      Scott Tipton raised $140,767 in 2010*

      Wayne Wolf raised $2,966 in 2008

      Scott Tipton raised $68,286 in 2006

      John Salazar raised $153,177 in 2004*

*Was successfully elected in general election.