TUCSON, Ariz.—For Mary Kim Titla, the San Carlos Apache running for Congress as a Democrat, the political race has become a money chase.
Titla is running against several other Democratic candidates for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District seat. As of mid-February, the Titla campaign [1] has raised nearly $130,000, Titla said in an interview. Her goal is to raise another $100,000 by the end of March, the first quarter of 2008, and reach a minimum of $400,000 before the primary elections on Sept. 2, she said.
The Titla campaign disclosure report [2] to the Federal Election Commission showed the candidate raised nearly $121,000 by the end of last year, with about $30,000 cash on hand and no debt.
The huge jurisdiction of Arizona's 1st Congressional District [3], whose population hubs are Flagstaff and Prescott, includes the Navajo Nation, the San Carlos Reservation, the White Mountain Apache Nation and the northeastern suburbs of Phoenix. Titla, who announced her candidacy in May 2007, hopes to succeed incumbent Rep. Rick Renzi, a third-term Republican who decided not to seek reelection.
Titla took a break from telephone calls that she and a dozen others were making to individuals and organizations across the nation asking for donations. "We're just trying to raise as much as we can," said the candidate from Bylas, Ariz. "Every week we are raising money, and I am very confident that we will reach our goal."
Titla said she's getting the encouragement she needs from Indian Country and is even being embraced by those outside of Indian Country.
"I am amazed at how far I've come," Titla added. "I am more passionate than ever before about making a difference in the communities. I'm focusing solely on my campaign and what I need to do to win."
What Titla is focusing on now—raising more money—is exactly what she needs to do to win, at least in the view of political experts. "Any serious candidate" for Congress must raise at least $500,000, no matter the district, said William Dixon, head of the political science department at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz.
"The sooner they can raise that money, the better off they are," Dixon said. They need this kind of big money not only to be considered a credible candidate but also to carry them through the primaries, he said. The money typically goes toward television, radio and print commercials, the candidates' staff members who are running the campaign, and traveling expenses throughout their district, he added.
Before potential donors "take them seriously" and donate to a campaign, Dixon said, any first-time candidate running for Congress must spend a considerable amount of their own money.
Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick [4], a state legislator and former prosecutor, has surpassed the other candidates financially, having raised more than $400,000 through the end of last year, according to the Kirkpatrick campaign disclosure report [5] to the FEC. She reported nearly $300,000 cash on hand and $20,000 in debts.
Kirkpatrick, who was born on the White Mountain Apache reservation but is not Native, said on her Web site that her first words were Apache.
Another candidate for the congressional seat, attorney and Democrat Howard Shanker [6], is trailing Kirkpatrick and Titla in fund rasing. Shanker's campaign disclosure report [7] to the FEC showed he raised only about $84,000 but had only $4,000 cash on hand and more than $9,000 in debts.
Dixon cited Shanker as an example of the risk a candidate takes by borrowing money to fund a campaign.
Shanker fought on behalf of the Navajo Nation, the White Mountain Apache, the Havasupai tribe and the Yavapai-Apache tribe during the battle to bar use of reclaimed wastewater on the San Francisco Peaks, a sacred mountain for the Navajo people, in Flagstaff, Ariz.
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Read reznet's previous story about Mary Kim Titla: "Next Stop Congress? [8]" by Candace Begody