Campaign coffer exceeds $2 million

The next presidential election will be Nov. 3, 2020. Presidential candidates are not the only politicians who need donations to run an effective campaign.
Even members of the U.S. Congress, who finished one campaign less than a year ago, can barely enjoy and relax before preparing for the next election.
Rep. Raul Ruiz represents California’s 36th District, which encompasses all of the hill communities from the San Diego County border north to the San Bernardino County line.
As of June 30, Ruiz has $2 million in cash available for his reelection. It would be his fourth reelection. He was first elected in 2012, when he upset incumbent Mary Bono Mack. He was reelected in 2014, 2016 and 2018.
Two years ago, at the beginning of his fourth term, Ruiz had $1.3 million in his campaign coffer. He already exceeds that total and his current balance is only $120,000 less than his available cash in September 2018, five weeks prior to the Nov. 6, 2018 — election day.
Since January, California is the source of most of his individual contributions, nearly two-thirds or $400,000 is from his home state.
During the 2018 campaign, Ruiz had several Idyllwild donors but no one from this area has made a contribution to the 2020 campaign. Residents in the desert cities — Cathedral City, Indio, Palm Desert and Palm Springs — are significant contributors. Other cities in Ruiz’s district, such as Hemet, San Jacinto, and Beaumont also support Ruiz.
Another large source of contributions to his campaign has been ActBlue, a nonprofit technology organization that enables nonprofits, and political organizations and campaigns to raise money on the internet. ActBlue provides them with online fundraising software, which has yielded more than $3 billion since 2004. Nearly $90,000 has been directed to Ruiz from ActBlue donors, mostly small individual contributors.
Nearly 60% of the Political Action committee donations have come from organizations based in Washington, D.C. The largest is $7,000 from the National Air Traffic Controllers. The American Academy of Family Physicians has provided $6,000.
The largest committee contribution, $10,000, came from the Doctors Company Federal PAC of Napa, Ca. Another 27 PACs have donated $5,000 each.
The Federal Elections Commission indicates that Republican Jesse Fallon Glick of Palm Desert filed papers July 18 to challenge Ruiz. However, no reports or other data, including any contributions or expenditures, are currently available.

2020 Congressional District 36
Campaign contributions and cash
as of June 30, 2019

            Contributions       Total Cash
          Individual               Committee           Available

Ruiz $ 387,000 $ 274,800 $ 2,003,000