Over $3 million raised in NE congressional race

LINCOLN, Neb. (COLOGNE) – During the last ten months, more than 3 million dollars have been thrown to two candidates who are fighting in the first congressional district. The latest filings from the Federal Election Commission show that only a few hundred thousand dollars separated Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks and Republican Mike Flood.

State Sen. Pansing Brooks held a press conference Tuesday to highlight nearly $1.5 million in donations to her campaign.

“More than $1.3 million of that $1.5 million is from Nebraskans,” Pansing Brooks said. “90% of the money that comes in for me is from Nebraskans. Our number of individual contributions is 12,752. And the number of our unique donors is 5335 people. Our average contribution is only $123. All this shows public interest in my campaign.”

The rest of that money, just over $26,000, comes from PACs or political action committees, but not corporations.

“Coming from the people of Nebraska means that I have the support and respect of Nebraskans and our constituents,” Pansing Brooks said. “I’m not indifferent to the special interests that are paying for his campaign, Hurricane.”

Pansing Brooks has currently spent $1.1 million and has $315,000 cash on hand.

Rep. Mike Flood, who defeated Pansing Brooks in the June special election, raised more than $1,877,070. The FEC shows that $1.4 million came from individual donors and just over $330,000 from PACs, including corporations.

10/11 NOW reached out to the Hurricane campaign and asked about those corporate donations. Hudson Buell, Storm’s campaign manager, defended the donations, pointing to money Pansing Brooks brought in during his run for the Nebraska state legislature.

“Over 40 percent of Patty Pansing Brooks’ legislative contributions come from corporate donors and PACs,” Buell said. “These attacks on Congressman Flood’s integrity are hypocritical and dishonest. Mike Flood works for the people, not anyone else.”

Buell also defended errors in the FEC filing that Pansing Brooks noted, such as more than $30,000 in PAC donations listed as individual donations in the latest filing and other discrepancies over the summer. In July and September, the FEC sent out a flood of letters alleging that the donations were above the legal limit for his solicitations. Storm told the Nebraska Examiner it was due to a software problem. Buell said corrections have been made for all errors.

“Patty Pansing Brooks is talking about spiritual error because she is siding with Biden and his terrible economic policies that are driving the nation into recession,” Buell said. “He can’t talk about improving the economy or lowering gas prices or inflation because his policies are making families worse off.”

As for where the Hurricanes stand today, they have spent $1.5 million, have $300,000 cash on hand and just over $195,000 in debt.

Both Pansing Brooks and Flood outperformed their fellow candidates running for the 2020 election. At the time, Democrat Keith Boles raised $1.1 million and former Republican Congressman Jeff Fortenberry raised $1.4 million.

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