I’d mentioned the Noem and the Thune campaigns earlier – and now I have the scoop on what the Rounds campaign has been doing in terms of fundraising while they’re setting up shop.
At the end of 2014, the Rounds for Senate campaign had $136,276 in debt left over from the massive campaign effort they had undergone to capture the seat for Republicans. Since that time, now Senator Rounds has been devoting almost all of his time to getting his office set up and organized, which has been complicated by the fact he still doesn’t have his permanent office yet in Washington.
Regardless, they haven’t been ignoring the campaign side of things, and according to sources in the Rounds camp, the campaign will be reporting figures in the neighborhood of $16k cash on hand, and $50k remaining in debt, after paying off roughly $80,000 of the $136k.
I’m told they’re chipping away at the remaining debt, and will ramp up over the next year.
In additional fundraising news, I’m told Rounds also is launching a leadership PAC this month; The Peter Norbeck Leadership PAC. This mirrors the name of a PAC that Rounds had utilized after he had left office to support State legislative campaigns, with some of the seed money coming from funds left over from his campaign account while Governor.
In case you’re wondering, Leadership PAC’s are quite common among those serving in Washington, with both Thune (Heartland Values PAC) and Noem (Keeping Republican Ideas Strong Timely PAC) both having them, as well as Tom Daschle (DASHPAC), Tim Johnson (South Dakota First PAC), and Stephanie Herseth (Rural America Policy Cmte) all having used them while they were serving in office.
Well, it is no surprise that he ran his campaign like he ran the State of South Dakota. Now, he wants to end sequestration. Did anyone see that coming?
Rounds won with over + 50%. Stacey and his sad ilk should give it a rest.