Vern Buchanan drops six-figures on cable ads, but Margaret Good is outspending him

Rep. Vern Buchanan just throttled Florida’s 16^th Congressional District with six figures in cable ad buys. That comes as Democrat Margaret Good outspends him in total.

The Sarasota Republican dropped $172,000 this week, including $112,000 on cable, in the buildup to the General Election. Comparatively, Good spent $27,000 in the same time.

But Good in total has spent $1.52 million, while Buchanan has put down $1.51 million. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also pumped $38,000 into the contest on Good’s behalf, a sign Washington Democrats still see the race as worthy of investment. There had been doubts since the DCCC did not include Good in its Swing The House project, but did boost Democrat Alan Cohn in the neighboring open election in Florida’s 15^th Congressional District.

FEC records show Buchanan has more resources to burn at this stage of the race. Through Oct. 14, the incumbent held $608,522 cash on hand. Comparatively, Good reported $198,730 left in the bank.

But in pre-General Election reports, Good raised $336,286 between Oct 1 and 14, showing there’s some attention coming to the race as the election draws near. That’s more than 10% of the total receipts the Democrat has reported since launching her campaign in July 2019.

Buchanan reported raising another $36,822 in the same two-week time frame, but had significantly more money to start with. He’s also already put $500,000 out of pocket into the race. As one of the wealthiest members of Congress, there’s reason to believe he could throw more at the campaign given a reason.

The campaigns, in recent weeks, have released competing internal polls, with Buchanan sharing numbers from Data Targeting showing the incumbent up 52% to 37%, but Good’s team released polling by Change Research that shows her within striking distance, with 45% of the vote to the incumbent’s 48%.

The most significant difference between the polls may not be the margins, but the fact that Buchanan’s own polling has him north of 50%, effectively unbeatable. Good’s numbers show a path where she could unseat the seven-term incumbent.