Unprecedented money raised by candidates in local legislative races

With the 2018 midterm elections just less than a week away, candidate fundraising in the Ninth Legislative District has shot through the roof.

With contested races for both state representative positions in the 9th Legislative District, nearly $300,000 has been raised among the four candidates who advanced to the general election following August’s primary election.

According to data from Washington state’s Public Disclosure Commission (PDC), State Rep. Joe Schmick (R), running for re-election in House Position No. 2, leads the way among the four candidates with over $110,000 raised in this election cycle. His challenger, U.S. Army veteran and Washington State University graduate Matthew Sutherland (D), has raised over $70,000 this cycle.

In the race for House Position No. 1, State Rep. Mary Dye (R) narrowly leads her challenger, Jennifer Goulet (D). Dye has raised over $59,000 compared to Goulet’s nearly $55,000.

Goulet, who lives in Pasco, is an instructional design external vendor for Microsoft and former chairwoman of the Franklin County Democratic Central Committee. Of the $54,916 she has raised according to the most recent filing reports as of Oct. 26, 74 percent of those donations have come from individual donors, the highest percentage of any of the four candidates.

Seven percent of Goulet’s donations have come from Political Action Committees (PACs), while the other 19 percent of donations have come from businesses, unions, political parties and caucuses.

For Rep. Dye, 19.1 percent of the $59,292 she has raised has come from individual donors, while 34.7 percent has come from PACs. She has raised $21,272 from businesses, which makes up 35.9 percent of her total donations

In the race for House Position No. 2, 68.1 percent of Sutherland’s contributions have come from individual donors, while 28.6 percent of his donations have come from PACs. The other 3.3 percent of donations he’s received have come from political parties.

Just 14.4 percent of Rep. Schmick’s contributions have come from individual donors, while 49.9 percent of his donations have come from businesses and 28.5 percent has been donated from PACs.

The $297,745 raised among the four candidates thus far has smashed any recent fundraising totals in 9th Legislative races that took place this decade. About $198,000 was raised in the 2016 election, while over $175,000 was raised in the previous midterm election in 2014. Both Rep. Schmick and former Rep. Susan Fagan (R) ran unopposed in each of their respective races that year, while Rep. Schmick ran unopposed in his 2016 race as well.

Across the state, over. $25.5 million had been raised by legislative candidates as of Oct. 15, meaning that more money would undoubtedly be raised in the final three weeks of the campaigns. For comparison, $26.2 million was raised in legislative races in the previous midterm election in 2014. In the most recent statewide legislative races, in 2016, $28.1 million was raised by candidates.

To learn more about campaign fundraising, PACs and lobbying during the current and past election cycles in statewide, legislative, county and municipal elections, visit pdc.wa.gov.