Mollohan alert
| Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.V.) may be running for reelection, but he doesn’t have much campaign cash to spend as he faces his toughest race in decades.Mollohan reported raising only $136,000 in the fourth fundraising quarter, and began the new year with only $65,000 in his campaign account — a total that hardly gives him any financial advantage against his Republican opposition.
He spent a healthy $101,000 of his campaign cash during the past three months, according to his FEC filing, including $5,000 to himself to repay a campaign loan. Mollohan’s northern West Virginia district has been trending Republican at the presidential level and the administration’s cap-and-trade energy proposals — highly unpopular in the state’s coal country — have put Mollohan at some risk, even though he voted against the House energy bill last year. Mollohan won reelection in 2008 with no Democratic opposition but faces several credible Republican challengers in 2010, including former state Del. David McKinley, the national GOP favorite, and developer Mac Warner. Sen. John McCain carried Mollohan’s district with 58 percent of the vote in the 2008 presidential election. |