Financial Reports in for Alabama Governor’s Race

Well, the remaining financial reports in the Alabama governor’s race came out today, and it was a bit of a frenzy keeping up and there has been a good bit of debate over exactly where we stand.  One measure to look at is contributions:

Bradley Byrne  $2,605,011

Artur Davis  $2,174,110

Tim James $1,360,632

Ron Sparks $656,188

Roy Moore $379,880

Robert Bentley $144,067

Kay Ivey $87,019

Bill Johnson $80,405

Another way to look at the numbers is to look at total receipts (this includes loans from the candidate themselves and others):

Bradley Byrne $2,713,474

Artur Davis  $2,182,168

Tim James $2,060,632

Kay Ivey $1,861,105

Ron Sparks $1,264,688

Robert Bentley $931,067

Roy Moore $388,880

Bill Johnson $120,405

And finally the one that most of us agree is the “bottom line” to begin 2010, cash on hand:

Tim James $2,618,733

Bradley Byrne $1,824,610

Kay Ivey $1,560,896

Artur Davis  $1,391,023

Ron Sparks $836,095

Robert Bentley $733,254

Roy Moore $145,068

Bill Johnson $56,895

Here is a graphic representation put together by Stephen Gordon of the second and third numbers for each candidate (except Tim James, where Stephen included the $2 million Tim James loaned himself in 8/2008 in his total raised, if only so that it didn’t look like he had more cash on hand than he raised).

Now there is a good bit of “funny money” in play here.  Almost all of Kay Ivey’s and Robert Bentley’s is their own, almost half of Ron Spark’s and Tim James money as well.  Those dollars do not necessarily demonstrate anything in terms of voter support, but a dollar is a dollar when you need it to run a campaign.  You also have the $1 million that Artur Davis rolled over from his congressional campaign (no differently than then Congressman Bob Riley did when he ran in 2002).

On the Republican side, my overall assessment is that Byrne and James have separated themselves from the pack.  Some folks thought Roy Moore might come out strong, as he did in 2006, but that did not occur and his campaign looks to be DOA, along with that of Bill Johnson.  Robert Bentley and Kay Ivey could still play the role of spoilers, provided they are really willing to spend the dough they put out on the reports.

On the Democratic side of things, it’s a little more complicated.  Ron Sparks did some magical dollar shuffling of his own to appear as strong as possible in this report, while Artur Davis likely still has quite a bit left in the tank in the fundraising department.  However, Davis is also burning through funds at a higher rate than some of the other candidates.  He will have to continue to raise at a substantial clip to keep up with that burn rate.  Still, the numbers Davis posted help strengthen his front-runner status over Sparks.

I’m interested in your take on the numbers below.

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