By Elizabeth A. Shack
Capital News Service
Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2002

COLLEGE PARK - With more than 100 times as much money as his
Republican opponent, 5th District Rep. Steny H. Hoyer has spent this
spring and summer donating money and campaigning for other Democrats
around the country.

From April to June, the Hoyer campaign gave $14,475 to other
candidates and $16,120 to organizations and political action committees,
according to his most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission.

Campaign officials said Hoyer has raised and donated more than
$750,000 to Democratic congressional candidates this election cycle,
through his campaign and his affiliated political action committee,
AmeriPAC, which is funding both incumbents and challengers in contested
elections.

"We're trying to take back the House," said Hoyer spokeswoman Stacey
Farnen.

Hoyer recently traveled to Florida, Iowa, Louisiana and Texas to raise
money for five candidates and will continue to travel this fall, although
as of Aug. 20 he did not have specific plans, Farnen said.

While the Hoyer campaign had $570,503 in cash on June 30, his only
challenger, Republican Joseph T. Crawford, said he had less than $5,000.

But Crawford is undaunted. For the past year, Crawford has attended
every event he has been invited to, large or small, in an effort to make
sure the party faithful know him, he said.

Crawford said he is running to expose Hoyer's liberal voting record so
people can see "he's worse than (House Minority Leader) Dick Gephardt."

"In this district, the general voter tends to believe Steny Hoyer is a
moderate," Crawford said. "I'm striving hard to be the voice of the
average voter."

In the meantime, Crawford was hoping to raise money at the 5th
District Crab and Shrimp Feast, a GOP fund raiser on Aug. 11, but by Aug.
19 he could not say how much had been raised at that event.

"I have not gotten a check yet," he said Monday.

Two other 5th District hopefuls, Green Party candidate Bob Auerbach
and independent Jozef S. Przygrodzki, failed to obtain enough signatures
to qualify for the general election and will not be on the ballot,
according to the State Board of Elections.

But Auerbach is still running.

He said he had spent $125 of his own money on the filing fee and
opening a campaign account. He was running a strictly grass-roots
campaign and was not seeking donations from corporations or PACs, he
said.

PAC contributions make up 70.6 percent of Hoyer's receipts, according
to FEC filings.

About two thirds of the PACs contributing to Hoyer's campaign were
business PACs, according to information from the Center for Responsive
Politics.

Copyright © 2002 University of Maryland College of Journalism