Campaign finance reports covering either the last six months of 2016 or, for candidates who had a contested general election, the period from October 29 to the end of the year, were due Tuesday. We have begun to incorporate those fundraising numbers into our Crib Sheets.
A few notes on the figures we’ve digested so far:
- Greg Abbott’s $34.4M on hand is $16.4M more than he had on hand as of the end of 2012, which was the corresponding period for his first gubernatorial race. It is the second highest cash on hand figure ever recorded for a Texas state official, trailing only the $35.6M he reported having on hand as of June 30, 2014. He has raised $33.0M since January 2015, more than triple the amount he raised during 2011-12, the corresponding period prior to his first gubernatorial race.
- Gov. Dan Patrick’s $13.7M on hand is larger than any cash on hand figure ever reported by former Gov. Rick Perry. Patrick has raised $13.2M since January 2015, more than former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst raised in any single four-year period.
- Attorney General Ken Paxton’s $4.6M on hand is the largest such figure he has ever reported, but it is not the largest figure ever reported for a sitting attorney general. That record belongs to Greg Abbott ($35.6M) while running for governor. Abbott also holds the cash-on-hand record for a sitting attorney general seeking re-election ($11.8M in October 2010).
- Collectively, the top six constitutional elected statewide officials have $60.8M on hand as of December 31, 2016. Four years ago, the occupants of those six offices had $35.7M (more than half of which belonged to Abbott), and those same six officials had $20.6M on hand eight years ago (42% belonged to Abbott).
- John Whitmire (D-Houston) has the third-highest fourth-highest cash-on-hand total of any elected official in the state, trailing Abbott, Patrick and Speaker Joe Straus.
Cash on hand figures for the statewide offices and senators up for election in 2018 are listed in the toggles below. We’ll have key House figures later this week.
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