Dan Ball’s plan to win the desert’s Congressional seat might not work

First quarter fundraising numbers are out for candidates running for the Coachella Valley’s congressional seats and, while two of them raised quite a bit, one candidate has decided to rely less on raising cash for his campaign, instead relying on annoying you on Facebook.

Democratic incumbent Raul Ruiz raised over $350,000 over the year’s first three months, according to the Desert Sun. Ruiz has now raised over two million dollars this election cycle. Meanwhile, soap star turned Republican candidate, Kimberlin Brown Pelzer – who is totally a Coachella Valley local – raised $80,875 and has ow raised over $262,000 total.  Also, someone named Doug Hassett, who is also running, raised nearly $7,000.

As for Ball, well…

Unlike Brown Pelzer, who was endorsed by Riverside County’s Republicans, the other Republicans struggled. Former television journalist Dan Ball, raised $1,464 in the first quarter.

Candidates traditionally spend their money on fliers, yard signs, consultants and campaign staffers. But Ball is confident he can leverage technology and social media to disseminate his message, which doesn’t require as much money as traditional political outreach. He thinks his presence in the community and years of appearing on television as a KMIR news anchor will allow him to compete with Brown Pelzer and eventually with Rep. Ruiz.

“Any journalist knows that the book on politics was thrown out the window after ’16, let’s be real,” Ball said. “Previous races prove that money doesn’t always win a race,” referring to Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, who had raised substantially more money.

Any journalist that has read that “book on politics” knows that the candidate with the most money wins these elections only 94 percent of the time and, this year, there seems to be a big wave of support for the Democratic party. – but, there is no way to prove that now, since, according to Ball, that book has clearly been thrown out.

As for all of that leveraging of technology and social media, well…

With 6 Candidates in the Race for the 36th District, and the primary 48 days away, I think the people deserve a debate. I’m ready, who else is in? If you agree, please share

Posted by Dan Ball on Wednesday, April 18, 2018

So far, no one else is in.