Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9 a.m. June 17 to reflect that District 15 delegate candidate Saqib Ali has outraised the three incumbent candidates in that race.
Incumbent state Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher will enter the final weeks of the primary race with more than four times the campaign cash of his Democratic rival, new financial disclosures show.
Waldstreicher, the Kensington Democrat who has represented District 18 since 2019, has nearly $330,000 in campaign cash as of June 7, the end of the most recent campaign finance reporting period. His primary opponent, community organizer Max Socol, had about a quarter of that, reporting a cash balance of about $82,000, according to the reports.
But Waldstreicher’s cash advantage doesn’t come from recent fundraising — and in fact, Socol gathered far more in contributions from Jan. 13 to June 7, the disclosures show.
Socol has raised nearly $82,000 since mid-January, compared to Waldstreicher’s $1,287 in donations, the reports show.
Voters on July 19 will pick a Democratic nominee for the Senate seat in District 18, which includes Kensington, Wheaton, most of Chevy Chase and parts of Rockville, Silver Spring and Bethesda.
Socol of Silver Spring has sought to cast himself as the progressive alternative to Waldstreicher, who has a foothold in the Maryland General Assembly after spending 12 years as a state delegate and then becoming a senator.
Waldstreicher has pushed back by trying to highlight his work on progressive priorities, such as climate change and gun control.
The incumbent has spent more than $50,000 on yard signs and campaign literature since mid-January and nearly $20,000 on polling, his disclosures show. Socol has primarily spent his money on campaign staff (more than $40,000) and consulting and direct mailing (more than $26,000).
The primary victor will face Republican candidate Missy Carr in the general election. Carr said she ended the reporting period with a cash balance of about $3,900.
[For more information on candidates for local, state and federal races, check out the Bethesda Beat voters guide.]
District 15 delegates
Former state lawmaker Saqib Ali has been outraising the incumbents in the District 15 delegate race, according to the new finance reports.
Ali last year was one of the names in contention to replace outgoing state Del. Kathleen Dumais, who left her post to become a Circuit Court judge. Instead, the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee chose Linda Foley, the county’s party chair, to fill the vacancy.
But Ali, who is trying again to claim a District 15 seat, is now outpacing Foley when it comes to campaign fundraising.
The reports show that Ali, who served as a state delegate from 2007 to 2011, raised more than $33,000 from Jan. 13 to June 7 and now has a bank balance of nearly $77,000. Foley, by comparison, collected about $18,600 over the same timeframe and has more than $27,000 in the bank.
Del. Lily Qi, who is running for reelection in the district, reported raising about $8,600 since mid-January and has a bank balance of about $107,000. The other incumbent, Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo, took in about $15,500 and has more than $60,300 in the bank.
These four candidates will face off for three seats in the July 19 Democratic primary.
The three Republican contenders — Jodi Colella Noah, Stacey Sauter and Matt Wade — all raised and spent less than $1,000 during the five-month reporting period.
District 17 delegates
In District 17, Democrat Joe Vogel appears to have a fundraising advantage over his rival, Joe De Maria, in the race for an empty delegate seat.
The opening was created by the departure of Del. Jim Gilchrist, who announced in August that he would not be seeking re-election. Even before Gilchrist made that announcement, state Sen. Cheryl Kagan was recruiting Vogel, an Uruguayan immigrant and community organizer, to run for District 17, which covers Rockville and Gaithersburg.
Vogel collected nearly $41,000 from Jan. 13 to June 7 and has more than $76,000 in the bank, according to his finance report. De Maria, a former foreign service officer, has filed an affidavit declaring that he didn’t intend to raise or spend more than $1,000 over that time period.
Here are highlights from the other District 17 reports:
Incumbent Del. Kumar Barve raised $5,400 since mid-January and has about $149,000 in the bank, according to his finance report.
Del. Julie Palakovich Carr, who’s also running for re-election in the district, raised about $4,200 and has about $50,200 in her campaign coffers.
Republican Donald “DP” Patti reported he had about $5,000 in the bank as of June 7. Fellow GOP candidate Helene F. Meister declared she raised and spent less than $1,000 during the reporting period.
District 39 delegates
The union activist who’s trying to unseat an incumbent in the District 39 delegate race is lagging his opponents in building a campaign war chest, the reports show.
Clint Sobratti — vice president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1994 MCGEO — made an unsuccessful run at a delegate seat in 2018 and is back to try again this election cycle.
But the new finance records show he has the lowest bank balance of any of the Democrats in the running. Sobratti reported that he has raised about $11,700 since mid-January and has about $7,700 in the bank.
Incumbent Del. Gabriel Acevero is a former union employee but has reportedly fallen out of favor with the group because of his support for certain police reform measures. He collected about $7,500 during the reporting period and ended it with about $10,700 in the bank.
Here are highlights from the other District 39 reports:
Del. Kirill Reznik has raised $16,600 since Jan. 13 and has about $38,000 in the bank.
Del. Lesley Lopez gathered about $3,300 and has a bank balance of about $25,600.
No Republicans are running for a delegate seat in the district.
The primary election is July 19. Early voting begins July 7. Mail-in ballots will be accepted as long as they are postmarked by 8 p.m. July 19 or are dropped into a ballot drop box by that time.
Bethany Rodgers is a freelance writer who formerly covered schools and development for Bethesda Beat.