More big bucks for Bill White

Bill White has set a brisk early pace for his Senate fundraising so far. He shows no signs of slowing down as yet.

Houston Mayor Bill White's consultant says White has raised $1.4 million since he declared plans to run for the U.S. Senate in mid-December. That probably puts White ahead of all candidates either exploring or committed to chasing the Senate seat yet to be vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has said she'll formally declare her candidacy for governor this summer.

White's consultant, Mustafa Tameez, noted that White is still mayor of the nation's fourth-largest state and counts on a statewide pile of backers. "We're keeping a very strong pace," Tameez said.

Individual contributions for a Senate race must be raised in $2,300 increments. So it's fair to say that White's haul, which counts nearly $769,000 gathered between Dec. 15 and Dec. 31, demonstrates strength.

I believe it's $2400 per donation now, but that doesn't change the conclusion. As noted in the story, White's closest competitor in the money race is State Sen. Florence Shapiro, who hauled in a bit more than $500K in six months' time. We won't know how John Sharp is doing till the March reports are out.

The ironic thing here is that I think if White posts a dominating lead in cash on hand as of March and June, that will just increase the pressure on Kay Bailey Hutchison to stay where she is through the November of 2010 election. Which means that either White will then have a nice kitty to transfer to a gubernatorial race, or he'll have an even bigger pile of cash on hand for 2012. Assuming that people will continue to be interested in donating to a race that far off in the future, of course.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on February 07, 2009 to Election 2010