Projo Politics Blog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Of all the potential challengers in Rhode Island's 2010 Congressional sweepstakes, former state Rep. Elizabeth "Betsy'' Dennigan has the most money in her newly-created campaign account -- and the vast majority of it is her own.

Dennigan, who abruptly resigned her House seat earlier this month to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. James Langevin, a fellow Democrat, for Rhode Island's 2nd District Congressional seat, has "loaned'' her campaign $100,000.

After raising another $14,004 on the fundraising circuit and spending $5,043, she had total of $108,954 for the next lap of her uphill campaign to unseat a firmly entrenched Democrat who enjoys a substantial fundraising advantage and has had the support of Rhode Island's Democratic establishment.

Before Dennigan had even announced her candidacy in August, R.I. Democratic Party Chairman William J. Lynch issued a statement backing Langevin.

Dennigan, who represented East Providence in the State House, recently moved to a summer residence in Narragansett to prepare for the race against Langevin. She said she preferred to leave the First District and challenge Langevin, because First Congressional District Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy is "more effective."

A lawyer and part-time nurse, Dennigan said the $100,000 is not money borrowed from a bank, but personal money that she and her husband decided to invest in her campaign to show "we are serious. We are not into this because we are wasting our time. We think Rhode Island can do better. I think this shows our commitment to a serious campaign.''

Her small coterie of contributors so far includes Rep. Gregory Schadone, a North Providence Democrat vying against House Majority Leader Gordon Fox to become the next House Speaker. While Fox publicly endorsed her, Schadone gave her $1,000.

In a brief interview earlier this week, Schadone said he called Langevin to personally deliver the news.

"He wasn't happy," Schadone said. "It's not that I'm not satisfied with Langevin. I just think that Betsy would be a great... She's a colleague and long-time friend and we've developed a relationship. I also agree with her position on economic development."

The quarterly fundraising reports to the Federal Election Commission were due this week for the three-month stretch that ended on Sept. 30.

Mark Zaccaria, Langevin's likely Republican challenger for the second election-cycle in a row, raised a modest $7,066 during the quarter, and supplemented that with $10,000 of his own money, on top of the $11,000 in personal loans to his earlier campaign.

That left Zaccaria, who never abandoned the campaign he started in 2008, with $18,540 in his account after a handful of small expenses.

Incumbent Langevin raised $175,355 during the same quarter, spent $108,076 and had $367,332 left.

His contributors included a third contender in the House leadership contest: Rep. Stephen Ucci, D-Johnston, who gave $250. His expenses included $740 paid for "printing/mailing'' to Matt Jerzyk, lawyer, political blogger and ubiquitous campaign operative.

Meanwhile over in the 1st Congressional District, Republican state Rep. John Loughlin is on his way to breaking the fundraising records set by others who tried to unseat U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy.

He still has a long way to go to beat Kennedy himself at fundraising.

But the Tiverton Republican has raised a total of $158,748 since he began his exploratory campaign for Rhode Island's 1st Congressional District seat.

That includes the $111,454 he raised in the three-month stretch that ended on Sept. 30 from a bank of largely out-of-state contributors with addresses reaching from Darien, Conn., to Littleton, N.H., Midland, Texas, Stilwell, Okla., and San Diego, Calif.

On the flip side of the coin, the majority of his expenses are payments to the Herndon, Va.-based HSP Direct for his direct mail campaign. He had $61,117 left, after spending $96,324.

Kennedy, by contrast, raised $240,907 in campaign contributions, spent $97,580 and had $458,626 left at the end of the quarter, which began with his return to Washington after an absence of about four weeks to undergo treatment for addiction. Kennedy had announced through staff and friends on June 12 that he had entered a treatment facility earlier that week. He declined to be interviewed or to disclose any details about his treatment or his condition.

His expenses included a $1,126 a month "campaign vehicle,'' three $40 EZ passes over the Jamestown bridge and a busy travel itinerary.

 Tags  campaign finances Elizabeth Dennigan James Langevin John Loughlin Mark Zaccaria Patrick Kennedy RI elections

---