Tucson Region

Edge in fund raising huge for incumbents

It's good to be the incumbent. You have the power. You get the attention. And you enjoy an unqualified edge in what might be the single most important aspect of running for public office: raising money. That at least is the message that screams out from the campaign finance disclosure reports of the major party candidates running for Congress in Southern Arizona. The two men already in Congress - Republican Jim Kolbe of District 8 and Democrat Raúl Grijalva of District 7 - have amassed considerably more cash than the four men and one woman who harbor hopes of replacing them. Kolbe and Grijalva, in fact, have more money than all their opponents combined, according to financial disclosure reports that had to be filed by 5 p.m. Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. With $569,000 on hand as of June 30, Kolbe is far and away the money-raising leader. His brimming campaign war chest is nearly 24 times the size of his opponent's, state lawmaker Randy Graf. Among Kolbe's top contributors is the Club for Growth, a Washington-based fund-raising organization dedicated to electing fiscal conservatives to Congress. They gave the 10-term congressman $2,000. "Jim has never had this much money on hand this early in a campaign," said Toni Hellon, Kolbe's campaign manager. "We're very, very pleased." If the ability to attract financial contributions from voters is a sign of viability, she added, then Graf's campaign "is going nowhere fast." Graf, a one-time golf pro from Green Valley challenging Kolbe in the Sept. 7 GOP primary, had $24,077 available at the end of last month. Some of his biggest contributions - $2,000 on two separate occasions - came from the U.S. Immigration Reform Political Action Committee, a group advocating stricter enforcement of immigration laws. "Not deterred whatsoever," Graf said of the fund-raising disparity between him and Kolbe. "It's not a concern to me. This is about votes, not how much money you raise." Jim Coniglio, Graf's campaign manager, said, "We always knew we were going to have a real David-versus-Goliath race on our hands." Grijalva, a former Pima County supervisor seeking a second term in the House, had $114,452 on hand. "We're happy. We're where we need to be," he said. "We're not a big, money-grubbing organization." Lou Muñoz, the Republican facing Grijalva in the November election, has not yet raised $5,000 and therefore does not need to file a report with the FEC, said Ed Parker, campaign chairman . "We're still organizing," Parker said. The most crowded race this year is among the three Demo-crats squaring off for the right to run against the winner of the Kolbe-Graf contest: Tim Sultan, Jeffrey Chimene and Eva Bacal. The Democratic primary is also Sept. 7. Sultan, with $48,099 on hand, is outpacing his rivals by a wide margin. Campaign manager Aaron Lockhart predicted Sultan will raise $500,000 for the primary. "People with real money always back the candidates they think can win," Lockhart said. Chimene, with $1,898 available, said he is more interested in cultivating grass-roots support than financial contributions. "I need to show a strong volunteer base," he said. Bacal's disclosure report was not available on the FEC Web site on Thursday. But she said her campaign had $1,248 on hand. "We will get where we need to be, we're just not there yet," Bacal said. Also unavailable on the FEC Web site were the disclosure reports for Joseph Sweeney, a perennial Republican candidate, and Libertarians Dave Kaplan and Robert Anderson. Jeffrey Chimene $1,898 Eva Bacal $1,248