The Aurora mayoral race, one of the few marquee races of 2011, has become an absolute dog fight when it comes to fundraising. Yesterday, former City Councilman Steve Hogan's campaign announced it has raised $204,418 to date, while the Peak is the first to report that Frazier's campaign has raised $231,141. These two hefty hauls are a sign that this race has become a two-man fight, with both campaigns flush with enough cash to take the fight to TV.
Frazier's campaign raised over $100,000 in this last reporting period to Hogan's $50,305 in the same period, giving Frazier's camp the clear campaign cash momentum. Frazier also has significantly more cash on hand — $62,319 to Hogan's $38,533. Regardless, both camps will have the necessary resources to get their message out to voters.
As the contribution limit is $25,000 the race could also see some last minute infusions of big donor dollars, though neither campaign has been able to extract a donation that size yet.
While Frazier went up on air with his first ad on Sept 19, Hogan's campaign went up with a hard-hitting spot today. The Denver Post's prolific scribe Lynn Bartels reports the Hogan ad will run on CNN, Fox, MSNBC and other cable outlets.
Frazier's campaign has promised a no-negative ad strategy, leaving them vulnerable to Hogan's attack on his council attendance record and role in a company that Hogan's ad says sent jobs overseas. Based on the only publicly available polling, a survey done by Magellan Strategies and paid for by Frazier's campaign, Frazier has some breathing room to incur attacks, leading 27-14 in the poll released August 3rd.
If there was any doubt that Hogan had crawled into the political sack with Aurora’s Democrat establishment, note the attacks on Frazier “outsourcing jobs”…the same silly sound bites used by Ed Perlmutter against Frazier last fall. No surprise from a candidate in Steve Hogan who has given Perlmutter a full embrace on the campaign trail in recent weeks.
Republicans in Aurora have two solid choices in Jude Sandvall and Ryan Frazier. After Hogan’s embrace of Perlmutter, and his George Soros-like attacks, we aren’t sure many Republicans will be that enamored with Hogan any longer.
With both campaigns' coffers filled and TV ads starting to fly, this race is kicking into high gear. Aurora voters go to the polls on November 1.
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To find out what the other candidates raised, you can check out the Aurora clerk's website later this afternoon by clicking here.