When applying discernment to Lauf’s campaign press release, metrics quickly shows she is not telling the whole truth again

On Monday October 18, the Catalina for Congress campaign issued the following press release about her third quarter fundraising as reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Friday’s filings:

From the desk of John Lopez: Lauf’s campaign touts her as a “…champion for the people of Illinois”?

When one crowns oneself a champion, one must tell the whole truth, and while Lauf’s $800K+ in receipts is impressive for the period since she launched her campaign on February 23 through September 30, discernment compels me to tell the whole story, which her campaign conveniently left out.

First, take out the in-kind contributions of nearly $18K in the first quarter, Lauf’s year-to-date (YTD) haul goes below $800K in cash.

But it’s that burn rate, the expenses vs. receipts, which threatens Lauf’s long term viability, if not electability, and no statement what she will do to reduce the burn rate of her campaign.

Her burn rate:

• 2nd quarter: 79%
• 3rd quarter: 83%

Here are Lauf’s numbers, which shows she is only banking 27.4% of every dollar she raises YTD:

These are questions discerning members of the media, as well as voters, need to be asking Lauf and her campaign.

In the coming days, McHenry County Blog will be comparing Lauf’s 2022 campaign fundraising with other millennial Republican women candidates who ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 2020, and like Lauf, are running in 2022.

But for now, please absorb what many have said in comments about Lauf’s burn rate, and other readers have pointed out in emails about the use of in-kind contributions Lauf, and other candidates for IL-16 have used to inflate receipts reported to the FEC.