Today's surprise comes courtesy of the mayoral campaign of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah.
The campaign issued a news release listing how much Fattah raised and spent for the period between Jan. 31 and March 26th, under the impression there was a filing deadline that required all candidates to disclose as of yesterday
There is such a deadline, but it applies only to state candidates, not local ones. The local campaign finance disclosure deadline isn't until early next month. The upshot is that Fattah ended up showing his hand weeks before he was required. And what a weak hand it is.
When I read the release, I had a Peggy Lee Moment. You know, the one where she asks: "Is that all there is?"
According to the Fattah campaign news release, the campaign has raised $1.4 million since late January and it had $600,000 left as of March 26th.
That $600,000 is a paltry sum, insofar as Philly mayor races go, even with the new campaign contribution limits set by city law -- and upheld by Commonwealth Court in a ruling this week.
This may explain why Fattah has decided to appeal the Commonwealth Court ruling to the state Supreme Court, in the hope of overturning the law, which limits contributions from individuals to $2,500 a year and political action committees to $10,000 a year. He obviously is having trouble raising the money from smaller contributors.
Keep in mind that Fattah is the only mayoral candidate so far who hasn't gone up on television with his own ads, so he can't argue that media costs are depleting his campaign treasury.
Bottom line: the Fattah campaign is going to have to raise a lot more -- in the next few weeks if it wants to run a credible media campaign when it counts, which in the final 30 days of the mayoral campaign.
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