Driehaus rakes it in

Steve Driehaus, the term-limited state legislator from Price Hill who will take on Steve Chabot in the 1st Congressional District, raised a prodigious amount of money in the first six weeks or so of his campaign.



Driehaus has filed a second-quarter report with the Federal Elections Commission showing he went from zero to about $165,000 from mid-May to June 30, the cut-off date for second quarter reports.



Now, understand that some of this money came in the form of contributions from the "leadership PACs" of high-ranking Democratic members in Congress who wanted to sow some seeds for Driehaus. And some came from the campaign accounts of some of Driehaus' fellow Democratic legislators in Columbus.



But Driehaus says that nearly $100,000 of the money he raised came from individual contributors. That is what the leadership of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is looking for - signs that the candidate knows how to raise money on his own.



The good news for donors was that none of them had to stand around a hotel meeting room sipping drinks and eating cheese cubes to show their support for Driehaus. He hasn't held any fundraising events yet; all the money raised so far from individuals was done by Driehaus dialing people up on the phone.