The first set of campaign reports for the 37th Senate District special election are in, and Assemblyman Don Wagner’s fundraising dwarfs that of former Supervisor John Moorlach.

Money isn’t everything in campaigns, but it counts for a lot – and it’s virtually impossible to communicate with voters without it.  As it stands, Wagner will be doing a lot of communicating; Moorlach, not so much.

The campaign reports filed last week cover the month of January:

Don Wagner
Contributions:   $174,026
Expenditures:    $51,703.81
Cash-on-hand:  $165,851.07

According to the Secretary of State website, Wagner has raised another $35,000 since January 31, putting his total raised thus far at almost $210,000.

John Moorlach
Contributions:   $12,549
Expenditures:    $13,851
Cash-on-hand:  $12,497.82

Moorlach seeded the campaign with $5,300 transferred from his supervisor campaign committee (I’m not sure where the other $2,500 in his “beginning cash balance” came from).

Some Moorlach partisans are already cattily complaining about “special interests” donating to Wagner’s campaign — which is a typical complaint made by partisans of the fundraising-challenged campaign to which those interests are not contributing. If the shoe were on the other foot, it wouldn’t be “special interest money” but a “strong indication of the depth and breadth of Moorlach’s support and momentum.”   Yes, it’s an inevitable part of a legislative campaign, but it’s a blockheaded criticism nonetheless.

In Other News…
The California Republican Assembly held its endorsing convention for the SD37 special election. Moorlach snapped it up on a 26-6 vote, according to some Facebook and blog posts.  Although a venerable organization, CRA is a shadow of what it once was.  I remember back in the early 1990s when the OC endorsing convention needed to be held in a large ballroom at the Hyatt Alicante in Garden Grove. Ten years later, it had shrunk to a business meeting room, and the shrinkage has continued. CRA really hasn’t been a politically effective organization since Mike Spence was its president, but he and other politically savvy veterans have since been “purged.”

For Republican candidates, the primary value of a CRA endorsement is in the right to slap its logo on the “[Fill in candidate’s name], the ENDORSED Republican!” mailer targeted at high-propensity GOP voters.