Meehan sitting on $2 million campaign war chest
Rep. Pat Meehan is leading all Pennsylvania Congressional House members in cash totals, according to the latest campaign fundraising reports.
Meehan, a Republican who represents Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, reported $2,049,176.82 cash on hand, which represents about $100,000 he raised in first quarter of 2017. OpenSecrets. org showed Meehan with $1.95 million cash-onhand at the end of 2016.
According to the Federal Election Commission, that puts Meehan at 39th of all congressional incumbents cash-on-hand totals for the 2018 election.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, RWisconsin, the top earner among
Congressional candidates, has $9.4 million in his war chest.
Much of Meehan’s cash for his 2018 re-election bid was gathered by decisive victories in 2012 and 2014 where he handily defeated first George Badey, and in the first of two bouts against Mary Ellen Balchunis in 2014. He defeated Badey with 59.4 percent of the vote, and Balchunis with 62 percent of the vote.
In the elections in 2014 and 2016 — where Meehan twice defeated Balchunis, the second time by 59.5 percent of the vote — he outraised
the Democratic opponent $4,388,710 to Balchunis’ $295,630.
Balchunis in 2016 raised more than twice the amount she raised in 2014 but garnered 2 points less in the polls.
Meehan raised more than $200,000 in the final 16 days of the third quarter in 2009, much of which was accrued refunded donations after Meehan’s exploration of a gubernatorial run. Donors simply saw a refund on their initial donation and then reapplied it to Meehan’s congressional run.
In his initial House bid, raised his most money to date in an election season, raising $3,031,825 and spending all but $45,112 of
it.
Between the elections in 2012 and 2014, Meehan pulled in more than $1,625,840, which accounts for much of the cash he has currently has on hand..
Among the top industries that have contributed to Meehan are insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, health professionals and services, HMOs, hospitals and nursing homes through both PACs and individual contributions.
Meehan was targeted for criticism after his vote in favor of the Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act. He voted in favor of moving the American Health Care Act out of the House Ways and Means Committee earlier
this year. The AHCA bill was pulled before a vote in the full House and Meehan, who had indicated he was undecided in the days leading up to the vote, said he would have voted against it — but only after it was pulled.
The health care debate in Washington also registers in campaign donations. Annual lobbying by insurer Blue Cross/Blue Shield has more than doubled since 2007.
Contributing to the campaigns of 176 Republicans and 118 Democrats in the U.S. House, BC/BS gave an average donation of $8,095 to GOP candidates.
BC/BS contributed to Meehan’s campaign $19,650 in 2016 through PACs and
individual contributions, but don’t even represent the top health industry contributor to Meehan’s campaigns. That designation goes to one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, Merck & Co., which contributed $23,710 in 2016.
Meehan’s top contributor is the Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp., which gave a total of $41,100.
A narrow vote last month negated a Federal Communications Commission’s rule that set limits on how Internet service providers, like Comcast and Verizon, could use consumer’s information on browsing habits, app usage history and location information.
Meehan was among the
215-205 to vote in favor of a move to reject the rule limiting an ISP’ss access to user data, which garnered no Democratic votes. That bill is still awaiting the signature of President Donald Trump.
Comcast, however, has spread their contributions fairly evenly between parties, with the largest of all contributions going to Hillary Clinton, with nearly a half-a-million-dollar given to her campaign in 2016.
Meehan was 12th on the list of recipient totals in 2016.
The 7th Congressional District covers most of Delaware County and portions of Montgomery, Chester, Berks and Lancaster counties.