As a fundraiser, Payne knocked it out of the park

It looks like a little bit of Gottheimer dust was sprinkled on Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr., (D-Newark), who dramatically stepped up his fundraising game and has raised $1,237,894 so far this cycle – the biggest haul of his career.

That represents a 54% increase in the top fundraising year of his late father, who raised $804,188 in 2008.   Payne still has six months left to go before his year-end total can be calculated.

He raised $376,440 in the second quarter of 2022 and has $144,059 cash-on-hand.

Payne slaughtered primary opponent Imani Oakley, whose disastrous mountebank candidacy brought in $462,671.  He won by a massive 84%-10% margin.

A  third candidate, Essex County College sociology professor Akil Khalfani, did not report raising or spending anything, yet he received 6% of the vote and trailed Oakley by just 1,304 votes.

Payne ran the table of labor endorsements and had the backing of all three people Oakley worked for on a short-term basis: U.S. Senator Cory Booker, Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake (D-East Orange), and the New Jersey Working Families Party.

Oakley appears to have raised her money largely through online donations – about 88% of her money came from out of state – unsuccessfully seeking to cast herself as a North Jersey version of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.  But she deceptively told donors she had polling that showed the race as winnable and led the to believe major progressive grassroots endorsements were forthcoming when those went to Payne.

Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that Oakley stopped paying most of her staff more than a month before the June 7 Democratic primary.

In her concession statement, Oakley claimed to have “won the fight to give Black voters representation in NJ-10,” even though Payne and his father have represented the district for the last 34 years.

New Jersey’s 10th district is one of the most Democratic in the nation and Payne is a shoo-in for re-election.  Republican David Pinckney, who won his own primary with 83% of the vote, has not reported raising anything.

This is a rematch for Pinckney, who won 11% against Payne in 2016.