PA-Sen: Q4: Toomey Raising Big, Spending Big

The junior Senator pulled in $1.89 million over the last three months of 2015, almost twice as much as the Democratic Party’s “preferred candidate” Katie McGinty’s campaign managed.
After picking up $168,000 in his first few weeks in the race, Braddock Mayor John Fetterman’s campaign lost a bit of steam, raising $10K less during the fourth quarter of 2015. Joe Sestak raised $373K and now has $2.58 million in cash on hand.
Top-Line Numbers
Toomey brought in $50K less than it did in the third quarter of 2015 and spent $854,088 – just half of what it spent in Q3 – as he looks to stockpile for the general election.
The first-term Senator pulled in money from 183 PACs and businesses in Q4, who have contributed an average $6,768 this election cycle.
Toomey, who has been labeled one of the most vulnerable incumbents, now has $9.58 million in cash to spend on retaining his seat in the U.S. Senate.
Contributions
Toomey picked up over 700 large ($1,000+) individual contributions in Q4, picking up particularly strong hometown support from the Lehigh Valley. 23 donors in Bethlehem kicked in $70,114, while 21 Allentown supporters donated $63,247.28.
60% of Toomey’s large donors in Q4 were from the Keystone State.
27 New York, New Yorkers chipped in over $80K, 27 in Pittsburgh contributed $72,731 and 14 Philadelphians donated more than $45K. Toomey also found solid support in West Chester, Villanova, Easton, Reading, State College, Wayne, and Bryn Mawr, picking up more than $20K from each town.
Toomey also picked up monetary support from several of his fellow Congressmen, including Lou Barletta, Bill Shuster, Pat Meehan, Joe Pitts and Charlie Dent.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is backing Toomey to the tune of $46,800, while the Senator also boasts four joint victory committees with donations of at least $33K from each.
Several businesses have a particular affinity for the junior Senator: 8 employees from Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts gave $33,400; 7 AmerisourceBergen employees gave $21,700; and 9 employees from Pfizer gave $19,100, while the Pfizer PAC contributed another $2K.
Expenditures
Though Toomey’s campaign spending was down 50% from Q3, he still outspent McGinty by more than $150K.
Toomey spent $233K on mailers and postage and another $16K on FEC compliance.
Consulting costs reached $256K in Q4, with Harris Media LLC ($76,219), LVH Consulting ($73,048) and Red Sea LLC ($66,178) picking up big paychecks from Toomey’s campaign.
The Lehigh Valley lawmaker paid $21,085 to St. Paul, MN-based FLS Connect and $16,770 to Bethesda, MD-based Basswood Research for telemarketing and polling.