February 01, 2012 08:08 PM UTC

Somebody Wake Up Scott Tipton; Pace Outraises Incumbent

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• by: Colorado Pols

Republican Rep. Scott Tipton continues to underwhelm in his bid to win re-election in CD-3. According to his fundraising report for Q4 filed late yesterday, Tipton raised $176,532 in the last three months of 2011. That’s a pretty weak quarter for a targeted incumbent, but what’s even stranger is that Tipton spent $435 more than he raised ($176,967 in expenditures for Q4). Tipton’s campaign spent $11,388 on media production, which we assume is for future TV ads, but the bulk of his money was spent on fundraising, via consultants and events. You don’t need to be handy with an abacus to know that you’re not getting a good investment when you spend more than you earn on a service.

Democrat Sal Pace, on the other hand, outraised Tipton in Q4 ($206,482) and managed his money much better, with only $77,678 in expenditures.

All told, Tipton begins 2012 with a total cash-on-hand amount of $510,384. Pace starts the year with $341,430 in the bank.

Tipton has been a bit of a mess in his first year in Congress, sticking his foot in his mouth on several occasions. And while recent polling shows that he holds an early lead over Pace, Tipton is not popular in CD-3. Maybe Tipton will wake up in Q1 and post numbers that show national Republicans that he is truly prepared to fight for his seat; if he doesn’t change the momentum in this race soon, the NRCC may decide that they don’t want to expend a lot of resources helping a candidate who isn’t helping himself.