Power in Numbers in District 9
Campaign finance reports were made public recently. Political insiders rushed to check out the fundraising totals for different candidates, and then rushed to judgment about how “viable” those candidates are – don’t let them sway you.
For many political insiders, money is the sole factor in determining the chance a candidate has to succeed. With this being the case, most candidates brag about their total amount raised or twist themselves into knots explaining why the numbers aren’t really as they appear.
We’re not doing that.
As expected, our opponent received maximum contributions from many of San Diego’s wealthy power brokers, and as a result, he raised more than us. However, the insiders should notice something far more important.
Right there on the reports is a far more consequential indicator of support — grassroots “small dollar” contributions. In the category of donations of $99 or less, we bested our opponent by a margin of 8 to 1.
I’ll repeat that. We had eight times the amount of grassroots financial support for our campaign. Approximately 21% of our total contributions were made up of small contributions, compared to only 1% for our opponent.
237 people who chipped in an average of $20.50. And that, my friend, is power in numbers.