The latest round of campaign finance disclosures shows the 2023 election is attracting record amounts of campaign cash.
Senator George Barker is a Democrat from Fairfax County who is poised to be one of the most senior members of the Senate and potentially chairman of the Finance Committee. But that's only if he prevails against a challenger in the primary – former Fairfax County School Board Chairwoman Stella Pekarsky. Campaign finance records show Barker has raised about twice as much money, which is a sign of things to come, says Stephen Farnsworth at the University of Mary Washington.
"This is going to be one of the hardest fought campaign cycles in Virginia history," explains Farnsworth. "Both parties are raising immense amounts of money compared to the past, and both parties are going to be looking at a lot of vulnerable incumbents and promising challengers as they try to reshape the legislature that takes office next January."
In Charlottesville, Senator Creigh Deeds has also raised more than twice as much as his challenger in the Democratic primary, Delegate Sally Hudson. And that's a good sign of where this race may be heading, says J. Miles Coleman at the UVA Center for Politics
"A lot of talk on the ground here is that he's going to have a close race with Sally Hudson," Coleman says. "Well, if we're using fundraising as a metric, Deeds is in much better shape than Hudson."
Democrats have an edge in fundraising for the Senate, but they might end up burning through a significant amount of campaign cash before the June 20th primary.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
