One of Charlie Rangel’s main advantages in his upcoming Congressional race will be the high amount of fund-raising cash he can pull in. Unfortunately he might have to spend that cash on something besides his campaign for re-election. It seems Rangel has raised $108,000 in the first quarter of 2010, but has had to spend $60,000 of it on legal fees in the first three months of the years. In total, he’s spent ab out $1.5 million in legal fees, according to opensecrets.org.
Rangel also spent $26,000 on illegal poster fines in New York City. According to the Daily News, he’s actually spent over $240,000 so far this year. In the past few elections, Rangel has raised $5 million, $2 million, and $2 million, and spent $4.2 million, $2 million, and $1.7 million, respectively. He’s still sitting on a nice campaign chest of $600,000 though he’s already spent a total of $2.6 million while only raising $1.9 million. It’s not exactly worrisome yet, but Rangel’s campaign is spending money left and right without bringing in enough. The prized bow-tie collection may even have to be sold on e-bay if things continue down this path.
One less thing to worry about, though, is State Senator Bill Perkins going up against Rangel, as he recently declared that he would be seeking re-election for his state assembly seat.