How Much Money Did Wendy Davis Really Raise? Not As Much As She Claims.

Another campaign fundraising deadline has come and gone.

Wendy Davis took the opportunity of the latest one to crow that she has raised more money than any previous Democratic nominee for governor. The Davis campaign claimed before the deadline that she and her committees have $13.1 million on hand.

Ok, fine, but Texas is deep red. As a Democrat, Davis will have to do better than the last loser, or the loser before him. Especially when Greg Abbott has $35.6 million on hand, leads in the polls, is a known foe of very unpopular President Obama, is already known and popular statewide…and we’re in deep red Texas.

As it turns out, Davis’ claim didn’t stand up to scrutiny. Once the campaigns revealed the real totals, Davis has less cash on hand than she claimed, plus she is claiming the value of some donations as if they were cash. She is claiming the value of Willie Nelson appearing at one of her fundraisers at $250,000, for instance. The Texas Tribune charitably calls this a “non-traditional accounting method.” Also, “unorthodox.” The reporter on the Trib’s story is Jay Root. He has seen more than one campaign come and go. He knows his way around a campaign finance report. The fact that Davis’ accounting looks sketchy to Root suggests that it’s sketchy bookkeeping.

Once you get past all the account combining and “non-traditional” accounting and look at how much money the Wendy Davis Campaign itself has on hand, as reported by the Texas Ethics Commission, you get to a whopping $5 million.

That’s about half of what’s needed to win a Senate election in an average state. Texas is a lot of things, but average, it is not.

And Greg Abbott actually does have $35.6 million cash on hand.

And Davis’ campaign hired someone who tried to commit identity theft in the name of politics.