Love rakes in numerous small donations, while Matheson milks PACs for money

After falling just short (a mere 800 votes short) of unseating the unflappable Jim Matheson as Utah’s lone Democrat in Congress in 2012, Mia Love is well on her way to raising the money necessary to finish the job in 2014.

Filings with the Federal Elections Commission show that Love has been raising money at a faster rate than Matheson, pulling in $476,000 since April to Matheson’s $257,000. What’s most interesting, though, is the large number of small donors to the Love campaign. A look at the filing (embedded below) shows that Love has been able to capitalize on nationwide publicity and raise money nationwide with $323,000 of her total coming from small donors.

Love’s success can be attributed to a number of things, but notable to me are two: hiring veteran political strategist Dave Hansen earlier this year to steer her campaign and capitalizing on national attention for the potential to be the first black Republican woman to join Congress.

In contrast the large number of small donations gravitating to Love’s campaign coffers, Matheson’s fundraising sources are primarily special interest sources with 89 percent of the money he raised came from PACs, according to an analysis by the Salt Lake Tribune.

So much for being a man of the people.

FRIENDS OF MIA LOVE Receipts and Disbursements 4-1-2013 to 6-30-2013