Warren Campaign Raises $8.67 Million, Sets New Race High

Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren’s Senate campaign raised $8.67 million in the second quarter of 2012, blowing past her first quarter total and setting a new high-water mark for quarterly fundraising in Massachusetts’ race for U.S. Senate, her campaign announced Monday.

That figure, which accounts for donations made to the campaign in April, May, and June, is a $1.7 million dollar increase over last quarter, when Warren raised a race-high $6.9 million. The recent donations could be enough to move her past incumbent Republican Senator Scott Brown in the overall fundraising race.

Brown’s campaign has until Sunday to file its second quarter finances with the Federal Election Commission.

“Elizabeth Warren has fought hard to create a level playing field for middle class families. It is those men and women who are fueling this campaign,” Warren's campaign manager Mindy Myers wrote in a statement.

Though Brown has yet to disclose his second quarter numbers, it is unlikely, according to political analysts, he will be able to top Warren, who continues to lead Congressional candidates not only in Massachusetts but nationwide. With $3.1 million raised in June alone, Warren's campaign seems only to be accelerating its quest for cash.

But whether or not all of that money can help Warren break a statistical stalemate with Brown remains unclear. Warren has outraised Brown in each of the last three quarters but has failed to move ahead in the polls.

“Her fundraising is stunning, but image-wise she’s the incredible shrinking candidate,” Republican political consultant Todd Domke wrote in an email. “I see two trends—aggressiveness in fundraising, and passivity in persuasion. So, her money goes up, but her poll numbers don’t. She's got a great finance team, but the messaging team has failed to cash in on the cash.”

Democratic consultant Dan Payne agreed that Warren’s cash advantage will only matter if she can translate it into effective advertising as the race moves into its final stages.

“When the candidates start to advertise heavily, the quality of the messages will matter more than the number of messages,” Payne said. “So far, both sides have been running the kind of ads you can show your mother. Safe and boring.”

Regardless of the tone of her message, Warren will certainly have the ability to flood the markets with advertising. A solid second quarter means that Warren has now raised a little more than $24 million since her campaign began last September. Her campaign said Monday that it had $13.5 million cash on hand.

The Warren camp counted roughly 40,500 individual donors in the second quarter, of whom 81 percent gave $50 or less.

“We still have a long way to go until November 6, and Wall Street and other powerful interests are going to continue to send their millions to Scott Brown,” Myers wrote. “But with the power of working men and women in the Commonwealth behind us, we will continue to have the resources we need to compete and win this fall.”

Comments from a Brown campaign spokesperson seemed to concede a financial advantage to Warren but aimed to call into question the source of Warren's support.

“Professor Warren’s campaign is largely dependent on out-of-state, extreme special interests and fellow Occupy protestors who share her radical tax, borrow and spend agenda,” Brown spokesperson Alleigh Marré wrote in a statement to The Crimson.

She continued, “Ultimately, however, elections are decided by the voters based on competing visions for our future, and Scott Brown will have the resources he needs to share his pro-jobs message and independent record with voters across the Commonwealth. No amount of money can wash away Professor Warren’s support of job-crushing tax hikes that would devastate our economy.”

—Staff writer Nicholas P. Fandos can be reached at nicholasfandos@college.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: July 10

An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Republican political consultant Todd Domke.