Perriello heads into re-election race with cash advantage

U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District, is heading into his first re-election year with a sizable cash advantage over the seven Republicans hoping to unseat him.

Perriello — who narrowly defeated Republican Virgil H. Goode Jr. in the nation’s closest congressional race of 2008 — disclosed Sunday that he had received $308,725 in contributions during the fourth quarter of 2009 and had $873,878 on hand in his campaign account.

As of the end of the year, Perriello had amassed more than $1.14 million worth of campaign contributions during the current election cycle.

“We’re thrilled to have gained support from over 2,100 individual donors — nearly five times as many donors as all the Republican candidates combined — 77 percent of whom are small donors,” Anna Scholl, finance director of Perriello’s campaign, said. “I think it shows how much support Congressman Perriello has at the grassroots level that we see so many small contributions coming in from all corners of the 5th District.”

Each candidate was required to file documents with the Federal Election Commission by Sunday that show their fundraising activity between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31.

Of the seven Republicans running in a June 8 primary for their party’s nomination to face Perriello, Sen. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, reported the most campaign contributions from the highest number of donors.

Hurt, a lawyer who has served in the General Assembly since 2002, received contributions totaling $293,458 and ended the year with $258,975 in his campaign coffers. Some 230 individuals and political committees contributed to Hurt’s campaign.

Hurt’s fundraising had been placed on a temporary hiatus during the first two-and-a-half weeks of the General Assembly session that started Jan. 13 because of questions as to whether he was permitted to accept contributions during the legislative session. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican from Fairfax County, however, opined last week that Hurt could take contributions, as a state ban on fundraising during the session does not apply to lawmakers running for federal office.

Self-contributors

Two GOP candidates in the race have contributed to their campaigns large sums of money out of their own pockets, the FEC reports show.

Jim McKelvey, a real estate developer from Moneta, lent his campaign $500,000. Apart from his contribution to himself, McKelvey received a total of $1,200 from other donors. He ended the year with $484,123 in his war chest — by far the most of all the Republican candidates whose fundraising reports had been posted by the FEC by press time Sunday evening.

Laurence Verga, a real estate investor from Ivy, has given his campaign a total of $276,579 in loans and contributions. During the fourth quarter of 2007, Verga collected $10,475 from donors other than himself. He finished the year with $217,835 in his campaign account.

Feda Kidd Morton, a Fluvanna County biology teacher and Republican activist, raised $14,300 from contributors other than herself. Morton gave her campaign a $3,809 donation and lent it $7,000 of her own money. Morton’s account had $2,419 left on hand as of Dec. 31.

Michael McPadden, an airline pilot from North Garden, reported that he received $3,228 from donors other than himself. McPadden put $6,000 of his own money into his campaign and lent it another $9,000. He finished the year with $8,725 left in his account.

McPadden said his campaign’s fundraising operation was not fully established by the end of the year. His campaign’s momentum, he said, will likely be more on display in the next filing period. “January’s been a very good month for us,” he said Sunday. “If things go the way we expect, we’ll have a very good quarter.”

As yet unreported

As of 7:30 p.m. Sunday, the FEC had not posted the year-end fundraising reports of Ron Ferrin, a Campbell County businessman, and Albemarle County Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd.

Boyd’s campaign, however, said his report will show that Boyd raised more than $37,000 from more than 100 contributors, bringing his total raised during the cycle to nearly $50,000. Boyd’s campaign finished the year with around $20,000 in its account.

“We’re happy with what we’ve got,” Boyd said. “We’ve got quite a few people who have contributed and they’re all coming from the 5th District.”

Boyd said he is not worried that Perriello is heading into the 2010 election year with so much more campaign cash than his Republican opponents, who are all in what is likely to prove an expensive GOP primary race.

“We’re concentrating right now on winning the primary,” Boyd said. “We’ll worry about Perriello once we get to the general election.”