Published: July 17, 2007 09:40 am      

Hill looking forward financially

Congressman nearing $700,000 raised for 2008 election

While the big news Monday may have been the presidential candidates’ fundraising totals, members of Congress also filed quarterly campaign finance updates over the weekend.

Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind., filed a report Sunday showing that he’d raised more than $322,000 between April 1 and June 30. The total this election cycle for the 9th District congressman is just less than $700,000.

According to the report, most of that money from the most recent quarter — about $192,000 — came from political parties and political action committees. Another $128,000 or so came from individual contributions.

The contributions were made to Hill’s primary campaign committee, known as “Hoosiers For Hill.” About $55,000 of that money went to the committee’s operating costs during the last quarter. Counting in transactions from previous quarters, Hill is left with about $543,000 of cash on hand.

The Federal Election Commission, the agency with which the report was filed, did not yet have all of the candidate’s data readily searchable in its disclosure database. Because of that, a breakdown of what kind of organizations and individuals donated to Hill was not available.

The next congressional election is not until November 2008, but Hill has been actively seeking donations since early this year. Just before the filing deadline on June 29, Hill sent out an e-mail asking for supporters to donate generously to his next campaign.

In the e-mail, Hill said Republican strategist Karl Rove is “spending his time figuring out how to beat me in 2008.” Citing an internal White House document, he said that Rove had named him as one of his top five targets in the 2008 elections.

He’s also sent out full-color political mailers — at the expense of taxpayers — touting legislation he’s gotten behind so far this year.

Hill had been a congressman in Indiana’s 9th District from 1998 until 2004, when he was narrowly defeated by Republican Mike Sodrel, who held the seat from 2004 until 2006, when Hill took it back. He was among a wave of Democrats who were elected to federal offices last year, thus regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The November 2006 election was the third time Sodrel and Hill had faced each other for the seat, as Hill also beat Sodrel in 2002.

Sodrel has made no formal campaign announcement since being defeated last November, though he indicated it wasn’t out of the question that he would challenge Hill. Two of his campaign committees are still active and did file reports with the Federal Election Commission earlier this month, though both were virtually blank in terms of financial activity.