Morning Digest: New Jersey Republican got lucky at casino but can't self-fund a promised $2 million
newsdepo.com
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar. Leading Off ●Morning Digest: New Jersey Republican got lucky at casino but can't self-fund a promised $2 million
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar. Leading Off ● NJ-02: When he first entered the race for New Jersey's open 2nd Congressional District back in February, engineer Hirsh Singh reportedly assured local GOP leaders that he'd pour $2 million of his own money into his bid. But according to the financial disclosure statement he just filed with the House, if Singh even self-funded a fraction of that sum, he'd be flat broke. Campaign Action Singh's filing shows that, far from being a multi-millionaire, his actual assets sit somewhere between $51,000 and $115,000. He lists between $1,000 and $15,000 of those assets as coming from casino winnings, writing in the description, «Hit black 13 on Roulette in Atlantic City after the first annual GOP Leadership Summit ;-).» Yes, Singh really included that winky emoticon in his official financial disclosure statement. Republican leaders understandably don't seem too ;-) with Singh. Atlantic County party chair Keith Davis grumbled, «A lot of people supported him based upon the personal wealth he pledged was going to be brought into this campaign.» And some of those people were, like Davis, also from Atlantic County, which makes up about 40 percent of the electorate in the June 5 primary, nearly twice as much as the next largest county. Thanks to the representations he made about his finances, Singh earned the important «organization line» in Atlantic County as well as in Ocean County, which comprises about 10 percent of the vote. That gives him a distinct advantage in the primary, since his name will appear in a separate column from those of his foes. And since those rivals have even less money, name recognition, or external support, Singh remains the front-runner. Singh in fact has only self-funded $54,000 so far, leading an impatient Davis to warn that Singh «better start raising money.» But that hope may be as vain as the dream that Singh would self-fund millions in the first place: Singh brought in just $48,000 from donors during his first quarter in the race. Read more