With Election Day having come and gone, politicians—and their fundraisers and donors—are taking a break from the two-year money-raising marathon that preceded it.
But two House candidates in Arizona are still checking between the country's couch cushions for a little extra cash. Thanks to an expensive recount in the country's closest congressional race, Democratic Rep. Ron Barber and Republican opponent Martha McSally are still hitting up their old donors and getting colleagues from around the country to tap their networks one last time.
McSally led Barber by only 161 votes after the initial tally in Arizona's 2nd Congressional District, a gap so small that it triggered an automatic recount under state law. That means paying staff to stay on a bit longer and, most importantly, bringing on specialized (and pricey) lawyers to monitor the retabulation of ballots, which will be resolved by Dec. 16. So Barber and McSally have looked to local donors, party leadership, and their friends on Capitol Hill in order to find political funds at a time when no one else is really trying.
There's a reason for that: Donors tend to feel tapped out after the increasingly long and expensive financial chase of congressional elections. But both Barber and McSally spent just about everything they had fighting their razor-close campaign, meaning they have no choice but to return to fundraising now that the votes are in, and some of their supporters felt they had no choice but to chip in one last time.