With a fundraising gap swiftly narrowing between candidates in Virginia’s 10th District congressional race, a cross-camp feud over the source of Democrat Judy Feder’s contributions has come to a boil.
The recent successes of the Feder fundraising operation have caused political analysts to view the race as less of a sure bet for Republican incumbent Frank Wolf, who has held on to the seat for a quarter-century.
But Wolf’s campaign is crying foul, continually pointing to figures that had ranked about 80 percent of Feder’s contributions as coming from out of state.
Wolf’s campaign spokesman, Dan Scandling, argues that Feder’s support lies not with the 10th District constituency, but with outside liberal donors.
“They can sit there and spin and spin and spin all they want,” Scandling said Friday.
“They are not being funded by people who live or vote in the 10th District. They can make up all they want, but the facts don’t lie.”
Feder’s campaign says recent donations, which expanded the contender’s war chest to more than $1.1 million, were split about evenly between inside and outside the commonwealth.
They say the Wolf camp is trumpeting statistics that no longer are valid.
Campaign finance tracking sites such as Opensecrets.org, run by the Center for Responsive Politics, and Congressional Quarterly’s PoliticalMoneyline (www.fecinfo.com), do rank the Feder donations as being overwhelmingly out-of-state. But recent data has not been incorporated into those figures yet.
An e-mailed statement from Feder campaign manager Scott Arceneaux on Friday said “her strong support from donors and volunteers show that Virginians, like most Americans, know that we need to chart a new course.”
“Wolf’s campaign is attacking Judy’s donors because they have nothing to run on,” he said.
