David Hartsuch: raising money is hard to do

Republican David Hartsuch of Bettendorf, a state senator nearly halfway through his first term, is the GOP candidate for the first district congressional seat.  He’s running against Congressman Bruce Braley.  Hartsuch is in the Twin Cities and spoke to the Iowans who are delegates to the RNC.  During his remarks, Hartsuch described the difficulty in raising money this year.  According to FEC reports filed by July 31, Hartsuch had raised about $17,000.  Braley had raised about $780,000.  Hartsuch said it was hard to convince Republican donors to give this year.  He likened it to starting a camp fire in the rain.

During an interview with reporters after his remarks, Hartsuch had some thihgs to say about protestors at the RNC, which he described as "violence on the part of the left."

"The Democrats don’t have to deal with the violence in Denver because they don’t, they are not, you know, we are not the party of hate mongers.  They are the party of hate mongers," Hartsuch said.  "They are the party that tolerates this radicalism, this violent radicalism and it’s about time that either the Democrats either better start decrying the violence here in Minneapolis, or they’d better start taking responsibility for it because I believe they’re at the root of it."  Listen to his comments (mp3 runs under a minute).

The City of Denver got a $50 million federal grant for security preparations for the Democratic National Convention.  (They even put protective tarps over the decorative rock around the Federal Reserve Building in downtown Denver, just in case protestors saw the rocks and started chucking.)  The City of St. Paul got a $50 million dollar federal grant for security.

Here’s a story about the anarchists who protested in Denver. (There’s a link at the bottom of that ABC News story about the assassination plot foiled by Aurora, Colorado police.)  Here’s a story about the anarchists who protested in St. Paul.