Hawks 2nd quarter – $118K raised, 81K spent. Only $152k Cash on hand, and “Winter is coming.”

Paula Hawks can take heart that her campaign isn’t nearly as bad as Jay Williams’ is. But, her “burn rate” has her spending it nearly as fast as it’s coming in.

Paula Hawks 2016 2 Q FEC

In order to compare apples to apples, I combined the pre-primary and the 2q report, which has Hawks running about a third (117k) to what Noem was able to raise ($310k), and spending 81K to Noem’s $215k.

That places Hawk’s burn rate at about the same as Noem’s for the quarter for money that’s come in.

But, while Hawks was messing around last spring through December, much like the fable about the grasshopper and the ant, Kristi was preparing for the race. This is why when Democrats are mewling that there’s no reason for a Democrat to campaign until election year, they need to be ignored.

As candidates move into the summer and the fall, and burn rates will greatly increase in the contest, Noem has about 1.7 Million in the bank, while Hawks only has 152K.

You might think, “that’s not bad.”  But you’d be mistaken. Think of it this way –  a statewide mailing runs about $75k, with postage. I’m not thinking that 150K is going to carry her very far.

If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, the talk last year about Hawks needing to get engaged in the race is akin to Eddard Stark warning everyone “Winter is coming.”

Unfortunately for Paula Hawks, Winter is about here.