As Of December 21 Rep. Tim Walberg Out-Fundraising Challenger Former State Rep. Pam Byrnes Almost 2 To 1

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMITTEE records show that as of the December 21, 2013 campaign finance disclosure deadline U.S. 7th District incumbent Tim Walberg had raised $713,195 and former Michigan Representative Pam Byrnes, a Democrat, had raised $392,113. Pam Byrnes has said she needs to raise over $2 million to unseat the incumbent, once a member of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus. On Representative Walberg’s Congressional website, however, he does not list membership in the Tea Party Caucus. Instead, he lists membership in other caucus group such as the Congressional Cement Caucus, Congressional Caucus on Canada, Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and Congressional Veteran’s Jobs Caucus. In total, Representative Walberg lists membership in 31 Congressional caucuses.

At President Obama’s most recent State of the Union address, Dexter resident Julie Boonstra attended the speech as a guest of Representative Walberg. The Detroit Newsreported on January 28: “Boonstra was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago and relies on daily oral chemotherapy. In October, Boonstra was among an estimated 225,000 Michigan residents who received notices the health insurance they purchased on the individual market would be discontinued for not meeting new standards under the law. She said she was covered under a Blue Care Network private plan with a $1,100-a-month premium but low out-of-pocket costs. Boonstra was dogged by technical difficulties on the federal health care exchange website and panicked she would be unable to keep her University of Michigan doctors and lifesaving treatment. Ultimately, she enrolled in a new Blue Cross Blue Shield plan through an agent where her premiums were cut in half at $571, but she pays higher out of pocket costs.”

The Detroit News has since debunked Boonstra’s claims as false, as well as the anti-Affordable Care Act ad. Americans for Prosperity — the group that funded the now-debunked anti-ACA ad — is a conservative think tank that receives significant funding from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. Walberg is among those House Republicans trying to repeal the ACA. The 17 inter-connected groups and PACs controlled by the Koch brothers raised $402 million in 2012, according to analysis by the Washington Post and the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. The network of politically active nonprofit groups backed by the Kochs and fellow donors in the 2012 elections, financially outpaced other independent groups on the right and, on its own, matched the long-established national coalition of labor unions that serves as one of the biggest sources of support for Democrats.

In this election cycle, Representative Walberg accepted a $1,000 donation from the NRA Victory Fund. The NRA is being funded directly by the Freedom Partners, a Koch brother LLC.

Former Representative Byrnes has taken in a quarter of her funding thus far from PACs including  a $2,000 donation from the DCCC. If Byrnes is to raise the $2 million she has said she needs to unseat Representative Walberg, the DCCC will need to pour money into her race, and that wouldn’t happen until closer to the November election. At that time, DCCC officials will evaluate Byrnes’s real chances of unseating Walberg. On March 3 Byrnes’s campaign announced that she  had “earned a spot in the first round of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) highly competitive Red to Blue program. She has surpassed demanding fundraising, organization and infrastructure goals, and skillfully demonstrated to voters she is a problem-solver who will strengthen the middle class.”

The DCCC’s Red to Blue program highlights top Democratic campaigns across the country, and offers them financial, communications, grassroots, and strategic support. The program will introduce Democratic supporters to new, competitive candidates in order to help expand the fundraising base for these campaigns.

Byrnes has received two $5,000 donations from America’s Leadership PAC and is its top recipient of funding thus far this election cycle. The PAC is affiliated with U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow.  AMERIPAC: The Fund For A Greater America donated $5,000 as well. That PAC is affiliated with House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Nancy Pelosi for Congress donated $2,000, and locally the Motor City PAC—affiliated with Representative Gary Peters—gave $1,000. Representative John Dingell’s Wolverine PAC donated $1,000, as well. Jeff Irwin for State Representative campaign committee gave a $50 donation as did the Julie Grand for City Council campaign committee. State Representative Gretchen Driskell, former mayor of Saline, donated $500 and did state Representative Adam Zemke. Mark Brewer, former Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, donated $500, as well. Kathy Griswold, a local pedestrian safety activist, donated twice to Byrnes’s campaign for a total of $300.

Former Ward 2 City Council member Joan Lowenstein donated $200, but no member of Ann Arbor’s City Council, all Democrats, has donated. In 2010, when Byrnes ran against state Senator Rebekah Warren for Ann Arbor’s Michigan Senate seat, local Dems lined up behind Warren. None of Ann Arbor’s mayoral candidates—all Dems (Sabra Briere, Stephen Kunselman, Sally Hart Petersen, Christopher Taylor)—have donated to Democrat Pam Byrnes.

Representative Walberg has drawn the bulk of his campaign donations from individual from the western part of the U.S. 7th Congressional District including Saline, Adrian, Jackson, Hillsdale and Chelsea. Walberg’s top Ann Arbor donors were former Ambassador Ronald Wesier and his wife Eileen, who each donated $1,000.

While Stuart Rothenberg wrote in an October 30, 2013 piece posted to The Rothenberg Report’s website that he “likes Pam Byrnes” and expects “Byrnes to give Walberg trouble,” his widely-read Rothenberg Political Report, has predicted that Walberg will retain his seat. The Rothenberg Political Report rates the Michigan 7th race as heavily “Republican favored.”

MSNBC recently named Pam Byrnes one of 37 women in politics “to watch.” Other women on the list included New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan, currently the only female governor in the country.