According to an MLive/The Ann Arbor News analysis of new campaign finance disclosures, as of late October a Democratic candidate seeking to represent a portion of Livingston County has has out fundraised her Republican opponent more than five times over.
Democrat Jennifer Conlin, a one-time journalist, is running for the newly drawn 48th state House district, which in Livingston County includes Hamburg and Genoa townships and a portion of Putnam Township. It also includes the northern tier of Washtenaw County dipping down into Ann Arbor and a northeast section of Jackson County.
According to campaign disclosures, Conlin has raised nearly $310,000 in cash and approximately $196,000 in in-kind donations this election cycle.
Meanwhile, her Republican opponent, Jason Woolford of Howell, has raised just over $88,000 in cash and roughly $2,200 in in-kind contributions this year. MLive noted that he faced a contested primary while Conlin did not.
The biggest donor to Woolford’s campaign is Woolford himself. The military veteran and minister has given almost $20,000 to his drive for office.
More notable is the disparity in funding coming from the candidates’ respective parties. The fundraising arm of the House GOP contributed just $2,000 of in-kind donations to Woolford’s campaign, while the Michigan House Democratic Fund has given almost ten times that amount, $193,000, into media buys, polling and campaign outreach for Conlin.
MLive says disclosures show Conlin has also received $10,000 in donations from labor groups and contributions from more than 1,500 individual donors with listed addresses in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France.
