Funding gap apparent in 9th District race

Each presidential candidate is expected to spend more than $1 billion this campaign season.

Closer to home, the campaigns of 9th-District Congressional candidates Democrat Shelli Yoder and Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind., aren’t spending anywhere near that amount. But there is a contrast in just how much each candidate brings in spending.

The 9th District covers most of southern Indiana, including Bloomington.

A breakdown of contributions to and expenditures of the Young campaign for quarter three, July 1 through Sept. 30, have not yet been processed. Yoder’s camp breakdown takes into account the third quarter of the fiscal year.

Of Young’s 1,055 itemized individual contributions, 148 came from Bloomington residents. In Yoder’s camp, 184 of the 534 itemized individual contributions were from town.

The Yoder campaign has collected $304,036 as of its quarterly filing Sept. 30. The Young camp trumps its opponent nearly 5 to 1, having raised $1,551,711 as of its Sept. 30 filing. While Young began fundraising in early 2011, Yoder started in February when she first entered the primary.

In terms of spending, Yoder has spent $157,448 compared to Young’s $587,077. That leaves Yoder to use $146,588 and Young to employ $950,739.

The top-two operating expenditures in the Young campaign have been $21,722 on finance consulting and $12,000 on survey research. Yoder’s top-two operating expenditures were $16,250 and $9,000 on Indiana Democratic Party prepaid salaries.

None of these statistics take into account any money movement from the month of October, as the candidates have not had to file this month.

Young began releasing a variety of television ads starting in late September, including spots on the Affordable Care Act and job creation. The camp has raised enough money to soon debut a television commercial in the Louisville, Ky., market and launch a mail campaign.

Katie Carlson, Yoder’s campaign manager, said the Yoder camp stretched its dollars as far as it possibly can.

“We do everything we can with the funds we have,” Carlson said. “This includes hitting the ground in public appearances to get the word out.”