No big surprise, but Valerie Ervin is now a filed candidate for Congress in CD8. She filed yesterday, July 1. Her first fundraising report will not be due until October 15, with a cutoff of September 30.
Valerie Ervin
Ervin Announcement On Facebook
Yesterday at 5:52 p.m., while we were all being deluged with fundraising emails, Valerie Ervin officially announced that she is running for Congress in CD8. Here’s her Facebook version.
Ervin Video
Valerie Ervin’s first campaign web video is out as the month of July dawns. Let the third quarter begin!
Ervin Announces
Valerie Ervin apparently announced her candidacy for Congress in a speech at Georgetown University tonight. So says a Facebook post by DeRionne Pollard:
An interesting way to announce - Friday night in DC. I’m assuming something more formal and local will be coming, but for now this is newsworthy.
Valerie Ervin
At this point, it appears clear that (1) Valerie Ervin is going to run for Congress in CD8, but (2) she’s not going to announce until after June 30, the looming FEC second quarter cutoff date. And today comes confirmation of both these points. From Facebook just about an hour ago:
Expect a filing from Ervin the first week in July, I’m guessing.
One complaint, and it’s not at all directed at Valerie or any other candidate. The problem is with CrowdPAC.
CrowdPAC lists all five filed candidates (Barve, Gutierrez, Jawando, Matthews and Raskin) in addition to Ervin. They allow donations to each candidate through their portal. That too is fine. But they aren’t keeping it updated - the links for both Ana Sol Gutierrez and Kathleen Matthews have the statement “With Crowdpac, you can support Kathleen Matthews’s campaign even before she formally announces as a candidate. Your card will only be charged if she decides to run.”
Photo:
The problem here is that Gutierrez filed a month and a half ago, on May 11. Matthews filed three weeks ago, on June 3. Are donors to CrowdPAC, thinking they’re showing support, actually being charged for donations? I would suspect yes, but can’t say for sure. But I certainly know that CrowdPAC needs to do a better job of updating these pages than this.
Six in the Eighth?
Word has it this morning that Valerie Ervin was at the Frederick County Jefferson Jackson Dinner last night, sitting with Congresswoman Donna Edwards, and introducing herself to Frederick Dems as “ready to run.” Sources tell me Ervin intends to make the announcement next week.
If she files by, say, Friday, June 12, she will have approximately two and a half weeks to raise money before the June 30 second quarter cutoff. Given the rumors of her alleged difficulties with financial commitments, her July 15 FEC report will then become one of the most anticipated numbers of the season. Don’t be shocked if she “announces,” but waits to formally file until after June 30. Then she can defer any financial report until October. Just a thought, but we will see very soon, it appears.
State Contributions
As promised, I have compiled a chart of the state level political contributions made by each candidate for Senate, CD4 and CD8. Only donations by individuals are counted here. It doesn’t purport to be an exact science - elected officials like Chris Van Hollen have donated large quantities of money through the DCCC, PACs and slates, but I didn’t want to make the work any harder for my diligent research assistant (or me, for that matter) so I drew an arbitrary line at individual contributions.
I also decided to take out candidate contributions or loans to their own campaigns. Just contributions.
Also note that the state database only goes back to 1999. Contributions prior to that date will not show up on this search.
Here’s the summary.
Senate
Donna Edwards: 22 contributions, $3,260, average $148 (Largest: Equality Maryland PAC, Anthony Brown (2006), 500 each)
Chris Van Hollen: None
CD4
Anthony Brown: 1 contribution, $1,000 (Charles County Democratic Central Committee)
Warren Christopher: 5 contributions, $4,620, average $924 (Largest: Victor Ramirez $4,000)
Dereck Davis: None
Glenn Ivey: 2 contributions, $55, average $28 (Largest: Rushern Baker $30)
Joseline Pena-Melnyk: 17 contributions, $3,070, average $181 (Largest: Jim Rosapepe $1,000)
Alvin Thornton: 2 contributions, $200, average $100 (Largest: Dennis Smith and Kenneth Johnson, $100 each)
Ingrid Turner: 6 contributions, $2,085, average $347 (Largest: Alonzo Washington, $1000)
CD8
Kumar Barve: 1 contribution, $100 (Largest: Samuel Epps, $100)
Valerie Ervin: 13 contributions, $3,040, average $198 (Largest: 2 contributions of $1,000 each to State Democratic Central Committee)
Ana Sol Gutierrez: 8 contributions, $1,474, average $184 (Largest: $550 to Rich Madaleno)
Will Jawando: 5 contributions, $338, $68 average (Largest: $150 to Ken Ulman)
Kathleen Matthews: 1 contribution, $1,000 (Largest: $1,000 to Doug Duncan)
Jamie Raskin: 30 contributions, $5,780, $193 average (Largest: $500 each to Anthony Muse, Jim Mathias, Catherine Pugh, Equality Maryland PAC and Doug Gansler)
Detailed lists are attached for each race.
Ervin On Crowdpac
Valerie Ervin is fundraising on Crowdpac. My attention was directed to this tweet from Wednesday by an alert reader.
Crowdpac allows potential candidates to see what level of financial support they can drum up before actually making a commitment to run. Any money “raised” is contingent on the candidate actually making the decision to run - credit cards and bank accounts are not charged until the candidate gets in.
Is this an indication of a true “testing the waters” phase, or a sign of Ervin’s imminent entry into the race? My Magic 8-Ball says: “Signs Unclear. Ask Again Next Week.”
Hot Sheet
For those of us playing the home version of the game, things have gotten messy. So being spring, it’s time for a clean start with a fresh new scoresheet.
Senate:
Declared and Running: Donna Edwards, Chris Van Hollen
Still Thinking About It: Elijah Cummings
Finally Actually Thinking About It: Dutch Ruppersberger
Probably Not This Time: John Sarbanes
Likes To Torture Bloggers With Conflicting Signals, But Also Likely Not Running: John Delaney
CD4:
In: Anthony Brown, Dereck Davis*, Glenn Ivey, Joseline Pena-Melnyk, Ingrid Turner*
Mulling It Over: Jay Walker
Rumored: Anthony Muse, Kris Valderrama
* Declared as candidates, but have yet to file with the FEC
CD8:
Off to the Races: Kumar Barve, Ana Sol Gutierrez, Will Jawando, Jamie Raskin
Likely: Valerie Ervin, Kathleen Matthews
Still in the Conversation: Ariana Kelly, Susan Lee, Jeff Waldstreicher
Four In The Eighth
My man Lou Peck is reporting this morning in Bethesda Magazine that District 18 Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez will file her candidacy papers with the FEC today.
Gutierrez, a native of El Salvador, was first elected to the General Assembly in 2002—the first Hispanic-American woman to serve in that body—after winning two terms on the Montgomery County Board of Education in the 1990s. If elected next year, she would be the first Hispanic-American ever to represent Maryland in Congress.
“I am very much running as a Latina representing the Latino issues at the national level,” Gutierrez said in an interview Thursday, adding that she is benefiting from “a huge interest among groups who want to raise the number of Latinos at the federal level.”
Also in the article are quotes from other potential candidates.
Valerie Ervin expects to make an announcement this month.
“I’m very close right now. We’re getting unbelievable response. I am putting a team together and we’re going to be making an announcement at some point in the very near future,” she said of her plans.
District 18 Delegate Jeff Waldstreicher continues to consider the race.
“I’m having active discussions with my friends in labor about the opening. There’s a strong desire for a candidate who will speak about economic justice issues and supporting our working families.” He is expected to reach a decision by the end of May.
District 16 Delegate Ariana Kelly says a paramount consideration is money.
“It’s a difficult decision and I want to take my time,” she said. “I wouldn’t be the frontrunner in the field, so I have time to decide whether I want to get in. The big question, of course, is the money—unfortunate, but that’s the reality.”
The only known prospective candidate not quoted by Peck is Marriott executive and former Channel 7 news anchor Kathleen Matthews.
Yet another potential candidate, Marriott International executive Kathleen Matthews of Chevy Chase, did not return a call seeking comment. But sources said Matthews, a one-time news anchor at Washington, D.C.-based WJLA/Channel 7, has been making the rounds of groups who are potential sources of funding in the contest.
