JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Republican candidate for Governor Eric Greitens is having a massive week of fundraising bringing in over $200,000 to his campaign over the last seven days.
Greitens stresses his background as a former Navy SEAL in all of his public appearances, but he seems to have relied on his work in the not-for-profit sector to raise just shy of $2.9 million – $2,861,700.37 as of Dec. 14, to be exact since February.
With just over two weeks to go until the fourth quarter fundraising period ends, Greitens has $2,284,943.44 on hand after expenditures according to the October quarterly reports. He has far outpaced the rest of the Republican field. Former Speaker Catherine Hanaway, who had a major lead in fundraising thanks to the early start of her campaign, had $1.5 million in cash on hand in October. John Brunner’s campaign committee had only $256,562.86 on hand and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder had a slightly higher figure of $276,431.58.
Those numbers should not change too much in January. Greitens has thus far raked in massive donations during October, November and the first half of December – $462,852 in donations over $5,000.
Kinder is not expected to need as much money to compete with his counterparts because of his decades of successful campaigns, and Brunner is likely to follow the path of Kentucky Governor-elect Matt Bevin in self funding a large portion of his primary campaign.
While Greitens is raising the most money, his war chest is far less home grown than the cash brought in by the three other candidates.
The percentage of money donated from out-of-state donors for the Kinder (6.95 percent), Brunner (10.23 percent) and Hanaway (2.35 percent) campaigns is far lower than the Greitens camp. Just over 61 percent of his donations over $5,000 dollars ($1,751,620.37) have come from out-of-state sources, from places like New York, Kentucky, California, Georgia, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Still, that does not mean Greitens is not getting money from Missourians. Hanaway is Greitens’ closest match in fundraising, and over the past four years, she has brought in just under $1.5 million from Missouri. Greitens has a little over $1.1 million in in-state money, not quite matching her amounts at the state level, but exceeding it in total. However since October, Greitens has also raised $307,744, about two-thirds of his Q4 funds, from Missouri donors, and he has outraised the rest of the Republican field combined in donations over $5,ooo in that time span.
Greitens large Missouri donors include several Republican heavyweights including Howard Wood, Jeff Layman, and David and Sarah Steelman. However, some of Greitens’ national donors are historically Democratic donors. While Kinder, Hanaway, and Brunner’s donors are much more likely to have a history of giving to Republican candidates.
However even with the large sums, much of Greitens’ out-of-state money is not coming from political action committees or their roided-up brothers, the Super PACs. Rather much of it comes from venture capitalists and financial firms, some of whom have donated to Greitens; foundation to get injured soldiers rehabilitated at home, The Mission Continues – donors like Terry Scariot of Remington Partners in Kentucky.
Other out-of state donors include some prominent Republicans who donate to races with national implications, which the Missouri governor’s race certainly is this year as the right attempts to flip it from a Democratic state to a Republican state.
Greitens’ single largest receipt came from Michael Gougen, an investor who works at the California-based Seqouia Capital. He gave Greitens $500,000. Comparatively, Rex Sinquefield, the St. Louis political mega-donor donated $850,000 to Hanaway’s campaign in 2014.
“We’re honored by the support we are receiving from conservatives who are tired of career politicians and are ready for real leadership,” Austin Chambers, Greitens’ campaign manager said. “Our team remains focused on gathering the resources and building the organization necessary to win in November 2016.”
(All figures are based on numbers provided by the Missouri Ethics Commission.)
