Democrat Chris Murphy Has Raised $5.5 Million For U.S. Senate Race; $1.2 Million in Quarter

Faced with a potential run against Greenwich multimillionaire Linda McMahon, Democrat Chris Murphy has raised $5.5 million for his U.S. Senate campaign – including more than $1.2 million in the most recent quarter.

Murphy

For the period ended June 30, the campaign says it will have more than $3.1 million in cash on hand. Part of that money will be used in the August 14 primary against former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, who has launched two television commercials in the past 11 days.

“With over 1,700 new contributors just this quarter, our campaign is growing fast,” Murphy said in a statement. “This was our most successful quarter ever, and we did it through the power of thousands of small donations—82 percent of our contributions were $250 or less. I’m so proud that our campaign has contributors in every single city and town in Connecticut, and while I can’t write myself a $50 million check, the power of our grassroots fundraising operation shows an enthusiasm for our campaign that McMahon just can’t match.”

Overall, nearly 8,200 people have contributed to Murphy, and the campaign says 80 percent of those donors live in Connecticut.

By comparison, House Speaker Christopher Donovan of Meriden, who is running in the 5th Congressional District, has more than 8,500 contributors.

Murphy has been endorsed by a wide range of unions and liberal groups, including the state AFL-CIO, AFSCME Council 4, SEIU, CCAG, NOW, the union-backed Working Families Party, and the Farmington-based United Auto Workers. Among top elected Democrats across the state, Murphy is supported by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, state Attorney General George Jepsen,  U.S. Sen. Dick Blumenthal, and four fellow members from the U.S. House delegation from Connecticut.

Bysiewicz’s campaign declined to release their fundraising numbers Tuesday, saying they will be out near the end of the week.

In the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays of Bridgeport is battling against McMahon. Neither of those campaigns released any fundraising numbers Tuesday, noting that there is a filing deadline with the Federal Election Commission in Washington, D.C. on July 15.

As of the last filing deadline in April, Shays had raised $1 million, including loaning $100,000 to his campaign. Shays had nearly $400,000 in cash on hand at the end of April, according to public records.

In her race against Republicans in the primary in 2010 and in the general election against Democrat Dick Blumenthal, McMahon spent $50 million of her own money. As of the last filing period, McMahon had either loaned or contributed to her campaign a combined total of $2.75 million. But political insiders believe that number will be increased sharply in the latest filing period.

This week, McMahon mailed out an expensive, eight-page brochure to voters across the state. The brochure contains 15 photographs – with virtually all of them featuring McMahon both today and in her younger days when she met Vince McMahon. Many other campaigns are unable to afford the type of high-quality, double-stapled brochure with color pictures that McMahon mailed out. The cost of producing and mailing the brochure was not immediately available from the campaign.