While trailing in the hunt for money in the governor's race, Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey has tapped into a broad base of small-dollar but ardent contributors who could generate important support for her at the polls.
Even as Sauerbrey is making inroads into the state's business community for larger donations, she is drawing significant numbers of contributions -- $25 and $50 at a time -- from the believers who buoyed her candidacy in 1994.
"These are the folks that are the hardest to convince to contribute to a political campaign," said Bruce E. Mentzer, a national GOP media consultant based in Towson.
"They not only have made a personal investment but a financial investment, and that does tend to be a motivation to turn out on Election Day," he said.
Gov. Parris N. Glendening has the edge over Sauerbrey in the total amount of money raised, as the two head for a likely rematch in the Nov. 3 general election. Glendening has collected nearly $3.9 million, while Sauerbrey has raised about $3 million.
But Sauerbrey has received money from far more contributors than Glendening. Her reports show more than 17,000 contributions overall -- while Glendening lists fewer than 7,000.
Three-quarters of the donations to Sauerbrey and running mate Richard D. Bennett are in amounts of $100 or less, according to a Sun analysis of campaign finance reports filed this week. By contrast, 24 percent of contributions to Glendening and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend have been $100 or less.
That suggests Sauerbrey has had to work harder reaching out to donors for every dollar she has brought in. But it also suggests that she has developed an army of grass-roots supporters who could help her at the polls.
Among the Sauerbrey backers is Thomas E. Creutzer, a retired real estate salesman from Perry Hall who has given her $65 -- the most he's ever sent to a political candidate.
Creutzer's donation is one of the nearly 1,700 contributions of $100 or less Sauerbrey has taken in since Jan. 1, 1995, the start of this election cycle. He felt strongly enough about her candidacy that he helped persuade his brother, Frederick G. Creutzer III, to give $50 as well.
But he isn't stopping there. He plans to be there in his wheelchair on Election Day passing out campaign material, and he hopes to persuade a couple of friends to put up big Sauerbrey campaign signs on highly visible properties in the Baltimore area.
"I'm really very firm in my willingness to do what I can," said Creutzer, 58. "Not only are we going to give, we're going to stand out there on the corner when the time comes. That's something we've never done before."
Asked about the large number of small contributions to the Sauerbrey effort, a Glendening spokesman said the campaign is happy with its fund-raising efforts.
"We're very pleased with the support we're getting in every region of the state, both from small donors concerned about such things as protecting the Chesapeake Bay and from large donors who know this governor is working hard to create the work force of the 21st century," said spokesman Peter S. Hamm.
The Sun's analysis of this year's filings also showed:
The Glendening-Townsend slate received 44 percent of its contributions from businesses and political action committees, while 56 percent came from individuals. By contrast, about 28 percent of the Sauerbrey-Bennett contributions were from either businesses or PACs, and the remaining 72 percent came from individuals.
Less than 5 percent of Sauerbrey's contributions were for $1,000 or more, compared with nearly 29 percent of Glendening's donations. The bulk of Glendening's support -- 43.5 percent -- came in contributions of $500 or more, but less than $1,000.
In all, the Glendening campaign took in more than $90,000 from labor unions in the past nine months, a third of it from unions representing state and local government employees. The governor has been strongly pro-union and made history in 1996 when he signed an executive order giving state employees limited collective bargaining rights.
Although Glendening was forbidden from raising money during the 90-day legislative session that ended in April, since then he has raised slightly more money than Sauerbrey -- $1.4 million to $1.2 million. The pace means the governor has been bringing in more than $11,000 a day.
More than 92 percent of Sauerbrey's campaign contributions came from in-state donors. For the Glendening campaign, 67 percent of the contributions were from Marylanders.
Campaign consultants said Glendening's reliance on substantial out-of-state money was not unusual compared with governor's races around the country. But at least two factors helped drive up the figure for Glendening.
In contrast to the situation in some states, issues such as transportation, economic development and the environment have regional consequences and prompt contributions from residents of Virginia and Washington. Nearly 12 percent of Glendening's contributions have come from those two jurisdictions.
A second factor was Townsend, who has brought the ticket nearly $490,000 during this election cycle -- the vast majority of it coming from out of state.
For example, Hugh Parmer, an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in Fort Worth, Texas, has given Glendening-Townsend -- perhaps as a thank-you for the campaign swing Townsend made through his district two years ago.
One reason the Sauerbrey-Bennett slate has seen so many small donations is because of its direct-mail solicitations. Those efforts account for about 10 percent -- $300,000 -- of the contributions, said Jim Dornan, the Sauerbrey campaign spokesman.
"We have a vast grass-roots, fund-raising network," Dornan said. "Beyond the fund-raising support, I think that shows the deep reservoir of support in the state that she has."
He, too, believes that will mean votes in November.
"If people are willing to give $5, $10 or $20 to a political candidate, you almost certainly see those persons go to the poll and vote for that candidate," he said.
Hamm said the Glendening campaign has done some small-price fund-raising events but very little direct-mail solicitation, which often yields small contributions. Such mailings will begin in coming weeks, Hamm said.
"We have a lot of small donors, and we will have a lot more small donors before this is all over," Hamm said.
This year's finance reports for Sauerbrey are markedly different from those of four years ago, when she used Maryland's public financing program to underwrite much of her campaign's cost.
Overall in 1994, she collected roughly $1.8 million -- about $1.1 million of that in public money.
By contrast, Glendening raised and spent a record $5.3 million for the 1994 race, which he won by a mere 5,993 votes.
Top contributors
Top contributors to the 1998 Glendening and Sauerbrey campaigns include:
Glendening
Democratic Governors Association $12,000
Maryland Trial Lawyers Association PAC 12,000
Maryland Medical PAC 12,000
Presidents Round Table PAC 12,000
Nursing Home PAC (HFAM) 11,918
Amalgamated Transit Union 8,375
Bloomberg, Michael 8,000
Agilusfor Inc. 8,000
Bailey, Beverly 8,000
Cohen, Melvin 8,000
Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors 8,000
Graves, Michael 8,000
Genesis Health Ventures Inc. PAC 8,000
Lightspan Partnership Inc. 8,000
Kline, Margaret 8,000
Kline, Richard 8,000
Kline, Ralph 8,000
Parmer, Hugh 8,000
Walt Disney Co. 8,000
Pepsi-Cola of Washington 8,000
Northrop Grumman 7,500
Spartan Plumbing 7,125
MSTA PAC 7,100
Sauerbrey
C-S Metals Service Inc. $8,000
Ayala, Carlos A. 8,000
Huber, Erwin 7,000
Perdue, Mitzi 7,000
Perdue, Franklin P. 7,000
Geesey, Ronald 6,800
Harbor City Plastics 6,000
Gloth, Fred 6,000
The Scarborough Group 6,000
Alban Tractor Co. Inc. 5,000
Precision Concrete 5,000
Kurzweil, Jeffrey 5,000
Garnet Inc. 4,900
Miller, Paul L. 4,660
Lexus of Annapolis 4,600
A J Burton Group Inc. 4,400
Gray & Son Inc. 4,400
Wolf, Mike 4,400
West, Christopher R. 4,375
Schrader, Mary M. 4,300
Small, Albert H. 4,250
Rauch, Philip J. 4,250
Crown Security System Inc. 4,170
Cassel, Gary H. 4,100
Pub Date: 8/20/98