May 25, 2012 07:00 PM UTC

Labuda Outraising Houck in HD-1 Primary

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

Incumbent State Representative Jeanne Labuda has over six times more cash-on-hand than her upstart primary opponent Corrie Houck, according to finance reports released earlier this month.

While Labuda had an anemic fundraising period by most standards – she raised only about $2,300 – her opponent did even worse, raising a hair over $1,600.

Houck clearly hasn’t been able to connect with donors, given she’s only brought in $3,600 since she kicked off her campaign. For her part, Labuda’s raised over $9,000 – a relatively paltry sum, but significant when compared to her challenger’s haul.

With the June primary fast approaching, Houck’s in a bad spot. Labuda has a full $8,000 to spend over the next month, compared to just $1,200 for her opponent. With such a gigantic fundraising gap to leap, Houck’s path to victory is obstructed, at the very least. Simply put, Corrie Houck had to raise more money than her opponent in order to stay competitive. Sure, the incumbent has made crippling mistakes which could’ve severely hindered her chances of re-election, but those mistakes patently do not matter if voters aren’t aware of them. Houck doesn’t have enough money in the bank to make the case that she’s a better candidate than Labuda. She certainly doesn’t have enough to raise her name ID to a point where voters will pick her over the candidate for whom they’ve voted three times before.

Beyond that, Houck’s terrible fundraising also betrays her entire justification for challenging Labuda in the first place. Houck staged a primary campaign, in part, because of complaints about Labuda’s deficiencies as a campaigner. Yet if Labuda is able to outraise Houck by such large margins, doesn’t that mean she’s probably the better candidate for the general election?

Still, Houck’s challenge has certainly made Labuda nervous. The incumbent representative has spent about $12,500 — $3,500 more than she’s raised. That’s nearly four times as much money as Houck has spent. Perhaps the person most confident in Corrie Houck winning the race, then, is Jeanne Labuda: why else would she spend such incredible amounts of money against an opponent who hasn’t even proven her credibility? To make up for her difference in money raised and money spent, Labuda had to give herself a $7,500 loan. While a loan is nominally different than donating money to yourself, it still opens up Labuda to the criticism that she’s willing to buy a fourth term of office.

It’s a shame, then, that Corrie Houck doesn’t have enough cash-on-hand to air that criticism.