More money flows into Democrat Perez’s campaign
Third Congressional District candidate Marie Gluesenkamp’s pitch to grassroots groups is proving to be effective, as her once-modest arsenal of funding recently experienced a large growth spurt.
Perez, D-Skamania, announced Friday that donors contributed more than $600,000 to her cause in August alone. She later tweeted that 97 percent of the donations came from grassroots donors, a majority of whom were Washingtonians.
In the same announcement, Perez’s campaign pointed to recent poll results that show her narrow lead over Joe Kent, R-Yacolt.
Consulting firm Expedition Strategies conducted 400 interviews with Southwest Washingtonians and found that 47 percent of the voters would cast their ballot for Perez, whereas 45 percent would vote for Kent. Eight percent of those interviewed were undecided.
“These results are incredibly encouraging and show that people are tired of extremists hijacking Washington,” Perez wrote in a statement. “They want their representative to understand their everyday challenges and are willing to work with anyone to solve them.”
Despite the 3rd District’s long history of being red, the Perez campaign said the polling shows that Democrats have an opportunity to flip the region.
The analysis also showed that Kent has more name recognition than Perez. However, those who were interviewed found him more unfavorable than his challenger. Expedition Strategies concluded that Perez’s lead is based on her messaging, particularly when making references to Kent’s extreme rhetoric.
“Ensuring Marie has the resources to communicate her positive case to voters as well as to define Joe Kent will be critical to winning this November,” the report wrote.
Lauren Ellenbecker
Lauren Ellenbecker is a politics reporter for The Columbian.