The campaign for Ted Strickland, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, announced Tuesday that it raised more than $1 million in the fourth quarter, its strongest quarterly total yet.
The campaign netted $1.05 million in the final three months of 2015, during which Strickland embarked on fundraising trips to New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and other cities.
The fourth quarter fundraising brought Strickland’s total to nearly $3.8 million in 2015, leaving over $2 million in his campaign account after expenses, local Ohio publication The Vindicator reported. While well over double the amount raised by his Democratic primary opponent P.G. Sittenfeld, Strickland’s fundraising total still falls short of goals set forth by his advisers.
In a 2014 memo urging Strickland to run for Senate, Justin Brennan, now his deputy campaign manager, and political adviser and fundraiser Erik Greenhouse recommended that Strickland raise $20 million ahead of the November 2016 election to defeat incumbent Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican.
Strickland’s 2015 total amounts to only 19 percent of what these two advisers identified as a "mission-critical" projection. The Strickland campaign raised $670,000 in the first quarter, just over $1 million in the second, and $970,000 in the third.
The former Ohio governor has netted large sums of money from consultants, lobbyists, and attorneys in the Washington, D.C., area, according to a Free Beacon analysis of campaign finance records. Strickland’s campaign raised over $170,000 from donors in the nation’s capital in the first three quarters of 2015. He has also received tens of thousands from wealthy bundlers for Hillary Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate and Strickland ally.
The Strickland campaign has sought to attack Portman for "looking out for the interests of billionaires" in Washington.
In mid-October, Strickland touted his extensive fourth quarter fundraising travels at a Democratic Party event in Cincinnati, citing trips to D.C. and other locations.
"I’ve got to leave soon after I speak. … I’m going to Miami tomorrow … and then I’m going to be in Fort Lauderdale, and then I’m flying to New York, and then I’m having a fundraiser in New York, and then I’m going to spend two days in New York, and then I’m going to Boston, and then I’m going back to New York," Strickland said at the Hamilton County Democratic Party Fall Dinner.
"Then, I’m going to Washington, D.C."
Strickland’s campaign chest is substantially lighter than that of Portman, who raised $2.1 million in the fourth quarter alone and $9.8 million over the year. Portman has $12 million on hand for campaign expenses.