Bee falls short of 1Q total

State Sen. Pres. Tim Bee (R-Tucson) reported that his second quarter fundraising performance did not live up to the first quarter's haul, though he is expected to easily outperform every other congressional challenger in the state.

The Bee campaing announced that it raised $391,821 between April and the end of June - $74,000 under the $466,092 total it posted for the first three months of 2008. The campaign now says it has over $687,000 cash on hand.

"With over 1,800 individual donors, Bee’s message is resonating with the people," read the release announcing the total. "86% of every dollar raised by Bee has been from individuals. The incumbent maintains her close proximity to special interests by accepting one out of every three dollars from special interest groups."

The campaign of Bee's 8th Congressional District opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Tucson), reported Monday that Giffords took in $562,138 in the second quarter and now has around $2.1 million cash on hand. It has not released the breakdown of how much was raised from political action committees and how much came from individual donors, but the Giffords campaign did state that the donations "came from 1,898 individual contributors and that 81 percent of these contributions are residents of Arizona."