A.G. Gancarski
Note: This piece previously stated Monica DePaul was running on the Democratic side, but that isn’t happening. Apologies to all adversely affected by the error.
Incumbent U.S. Rep. John Rutherford, who has represented Northeast Florida’s 4th Congressional District since the 2016 election, rolled out first-quarter fundraising numbers Tuesday.
The Congressman will maintain his cash on hand advantage over likely Democratic challenger Donna Deegan.
However, each quarter sees the challenger closing in on the incumbent.
Rutherford raised nearly $150,000 between Jan. 1 and Mar. 31 of this year, pushing his total on hand over $597,000.
Cash on hand increased by nearly $100,000 since the end of 2019 report.
Rutherford’s money was roughly an even split between individual contributions, most of whom were familiar donor class fixtures who helped drive his anticlimactic victories in 2016 and 2018, with corporate PACs pumping in another $77,000.
However, for the second straight quarter, his challenger outraised him.
Deegan raised $220,305.36 for Q1, giving her a total raised of $425,901 through the first two quarters. More than 3400 individual donors contributed.
During the last quarter of 2019, Rutherford raised $123,850, less than Deegan, a former broadcaster and cancer survivor, who raised $204,000 in her first quarter in the race.
Rutherford, a former three-term Jacksonville Sheriff, faced his toughest challenge in a battle royale-style 2016 GOP primary to replace outgoing Rep. Ander Crenshaw.
Since then, a combination of strong name identification, a deep red district and underwhelming challengers, as well as a robust Republican plurality have sheltered Rutherford. He typically garners roughly 70% of the vote.
GOP voters comprise 286,013 of the district’s 577,173 registered voters, compared to 155,073 Democrats, with independents and third-party registrants making up the balance.
Rutherford and Deegan appear to be on a collision course for their party’s nominations.
Other candidates with open campaign accounts, including Republicans Robbi Gleichauf and Erick Aguilar, have raised little money.
Gleichauf raised nothing.
Aguilar had roughly $5,000 on hand.
Candidates in Florida’s 4th Congressional District, and everywhere else, are expected to file Q1 fundraising reports no later than 11:59 PM on April 15.
Expect updates as data is provided.
11 comments
Johny Reb "seber" Trump
April 14, 2020 at 2:41 pm
Donna Deegan is a socialist. Remember , she headed up Andrew Gillum’s northeast Florida’s campaign.. Gillum was just recently found passed out on the floor of a hotel with a male escort. Wow, can Deegan pick em… People will remember her ties with Gillum!!!!!!!!!
Pedro
April 14, 2020 at 2:44 pm
It will be interesting to see what pharmaceutical and prison industry contributions Rutherford pulled in?
Sonja Fitch
April 14, 2020 at 2:53 pm
Rutherford loooooses because he sold his soul to the goptrump cult!
Pedro
April 14, 2020 at 2:55 pm
Rutherford was a desk jockey jail administrator Sheriff and is an evangelical Christian willing to dictate what woman should do with their bodies and who supports business over workers, so not really a Christian who voted against holding Trump accountable. All we need to know.
Tom Merten
April 14, 2020 at 7:42 pm
The contributions of Donna Deegan’s 3400+ supporters averaged no more than $64.79 each. Was any of this from corporate PACS? How many contributions from actual people did John Rutherford have? Using the article’s data, 51.37% of his contribution dollars were from corporate PACS. The Federal Election Commission link below lists the 151 PAC contributions he received in calendar year 2019. If you shop at Publix and like John Rutherford, you will be happy with their two contributions totaled $3k. Drink Budweiser? An Anheuser Busch pac made one donation of $5k to his campaign.
https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?committee_id=C00615294&two_year_transaction_period=2020&line_number=F3-11C&data_type=processed
Pedro
April 14, 2020 at 8:44 pm
That’s why I really don’t like shopping at Publix and I have always preferred imports to domestic anyway. Unfortunately Rutherford is bought and paid for like every other local and state republican politician.
Tom Merten
April 15, 2020 at 5:40 pm
The FEC site just updated and shows 53 PAC contributions for John Rutherford in the first 3 months of 2020. That is a PAC contribution every 1.7 days! Among others, Crowley Maritime Corporation Federal PAC made two gifts totaling $5500. Comcast made one contribution of $1000. Sierra Nevada Corp PAC sent 2 gifts totaling $2500. The Peoples’ Choice or the PAC’s Choice?
Monica DePaul
April 15, 2020 at 6:20 pm
I dropped out of the race MONTHS ago! Stop printing my name alongside Donna Deegan and John Rutherford! I’ve linked the social media post where I announced it.
Pasquino
April 16, 2020 at 7:51 pm
Donna Deegan’s Donna Deegan’s lack of judgment knows no limits. First, she told us that she just “can’t believe that Florida is going to miss out on [Gillum] as governor.” She is still very active in his Florida Forward PAC, and Gillum’s aunt who is an HR Leader at JEA is also a key organizer of her campaign. Now that we have seen pics all over the internet of Gillum completely naked in his own vomit in a hotel room with a male escort and bags of meth, what exactly did Florida miss out on?
Then she accused the ever honorable Rutherford of being a bigot “To call a woman of color a terrorist ‘sympathizer’ simply because of her faith background, is reprehensible, and exactly what divides us.” So what does she say to the men and women of this community killed and maimed by the Ayatollah – who is a person and not a creed or race – along with his henchmen like Soleimani, not to mention those innocent souls inside Iran including many homosexuals brutally tortured and killed by his regime? Btw does she even realize that Jayapal is not Muslim despite being a person of color? Talk about unconscious bias!
Now she says that “it’s common sense that when you are battling an illness you don’t stop paying your doctors and nurses.” Does she realize that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is clearly a corrupt politician and accused of “covering up epidemics” by the NYT in 2017, and now again?
FLORIDA’S DISTRICT 4 DOES NOT NEED ANY MORE OF DEEGAN’S POOR JUDGEMENT.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/health/candidate-who-director-general-ethiopia-cholera-outbreaks.html
Johny Reb "seber" Trump
April 17, 2020 at 2:34 pm
Well said “Pasquino”. You stated all the facts that the liberal left hates for people to hear.. Deegan is a socialist, pure and simple!!! And her choice of Gillum for Governor, proves she does not have common sense, or intelligence.
Joe
April 22, 2020 at 8:01 pm
I’m sure she’s raising more than money. She has a way of getting a rise out of people in parking lots!!!
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