If money talks, so, too, does its absence.
A look into the campaign finance reports filed by General Assembly candidates this week, especially two GOP leaders who have been major bank-rollers of Republican House hopefuls in the past, includes these numbers:
Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, raised nearly $303,000 just in September and spent more than $531,000, including more than $316,000 on various ad and media buys and more than $30,000 on various campaign materials and postage. He wrote a $50,000 check to the Republican Party of Virginia, which for its part donated more than $47,000 to his campaign in the form of printing and mailing, Shad Plank’s review of his schedule D filing at the State Board of Elections found.
Cox gave a total of $500 to other political candidates.
This marks a change from the last election cycle.
In September 2017, fending off what turned out to be a blue wave in which Democrats picked up 15 seats, he sent $135,250 to 15 candidates, most of whom needed it badly. Only three made it back to the House. And the largest sums Cox sent — $26,000 to Jim LeMunyon, seeking re-election in a heavily Democratic Northern Virginia, $25,000 to Rocky Holcomb, who lost his Virginia Beach seat (but is seeking to regain it this year), and $11,000 each to Rich Anderson, Ron Villaneuva and Tag Greason, all of who ended up swamped by that blue wave — show he has a good eye for where the toughest battlefields are.
And this year, the tale money tells is that Cox’s own Colonial Heights-anchored district is one. It was one of the districts with federal court-ordered changes, and with the Hampton Roads district Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, represents, one where those changes caused a huge shift in partisan lean.
In September, Jones gave $51,000 to three candidates, including $47,500 to Joseph Yost, the Republican stalwart on mental health issues who had represented one of the handful of west of the Blue Ridge districts to lean Democratic. Jones has also been focused this year on his own race. He spent more than $119,000 on TV and other advertising and more than $32,000 on signs and brochures.
The question now, especially as Democrats ramp up their fundraising and spending in the final weeks before Election Day, is whether those shifts in focus will have an impact beyond those two districts, to the entire state.
Shad Plank is the Daily Press blog that tracks Virginia politics. It takes its name from the traditional Shad Planking political get-together, though hopefully it is tastier than the roasted fish featured at that Sussex County event. To contact Dave Ress with tips or questions, call 757-247-4535 or email dress@dailypress.com.
