Dave Cieslewicz outraised Paul Soglin nearly 2-1 in the most recent reporting period, which included the entire month of protests in the wake of Gov. Walker's budget repair bill. Mayor Dave's $120,000 compares to Soglin's $63,000.
What happened to Soglin? Not much, apparently. He kept the pace he set during the last reporting period, when he raised over 50k. The real story is Cieslewicz's shift from a lackluster fundraising effort to an explosive one. $120,000 in six weeks is a helluva lot of cash in a municipal race. Heck, that's almost 1/1000th of what Mike Bloomberg would spend to be mayor.
Looking through Cieslewicz's campaign finance report reveals a wide variety of contributors, including business executives (even from the evil M&I Bank!), small businesspeople and public employees.
It's hard to say whether these fundraising numbers indicate that Cieslewicz has benefitted from the anti-Republican activism of the past month and a half. However, the almost identical fundraising numbers County Executive candidate Joe Parisi released seem to suggest there may be a link.
However, mobilization of progressive spirit is certainly not the only source of the Cieslewicz edge. If you read through the list of contributors, you'll see the names of many business executives who gave right after the Feb. 15 primary. I wouldn't be surprised if Soglin's primary was what kicked Cieslewicz's business network into check-writing mode.
I haven't heard anything about any internal polls from either campaign, meaning I am either woefully out of the loop or this race is in a dead-heat. Or both.
