Caruso on track to exceed $100 million in campaign spending
By Mark Henle
The Daily Times
Posted: 03/28/2013 04:18:52 PM MST
Updated: 03/29/2013 10:23:03 AM MST
Rep. Mike Capuano is being courted to run for governor in 2014, but is being warned that he might be in too deep to stay at the top of the ticket.
Capuano appears to be heading into a very good fundraising year, and is currently in the top five of the most generous campaign donors in the House, raising nearly $9.3 million since January, state data shows.
He is not in the top five of the most generous House donors. Rep. Michael Grimm, D-N.Y., was in the top five of the most generous House donors in the second quarter, and Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., the No. 1 House donor, raised about $300,000 during the same period.
The biggest beneficiary of Capuano’s spending is his leadership PAC, the Conservative Action Committee, which in the first quarter hauled in $17,000, with most of it going for radio advertising, and $500 going to Capuano. The second quarter gave CAC $31,000, with all but $200 going toward Capuano, and $8,000 went to the group’s leadership PAC.
But Capuano may be in too deep to leave his office for a gubernatorial campaign, and in the meantime, the Republican Party is being warned off him by the conservative base, which is a little more sophisticated about its priorities than the base of the current administration, both in social issues and fiscal policy.
Advertisement
Capuano would be a fine choice for the governor’s race, and the fact that he appears to be leading the polls among Republicans makes him more attractive to the party leadership and conservative activists. But there is concern that he has put his head too far above the party and the nation’s economic problems.
“He’s got to start acting like a normal politician,” former South Carolina GOP chairman Bill Parry told The Wall Street
