Kind of a non-story.
One Hawaii Democrat called Kahele the most formidable opponent that Gabbard has faced in her congressional career. But even that official cautioned that it would be difficult to unseat the congresswoman should she decide to run for re-election to the House in the wake of a White House bid falling short.
That’s because Gabbard’s current cash flow problems could be easily remedied. The congresswoman has developed a national political following during her presidential bid—her presidential campaign raised $1.5 million in the second quarter—giving her the type of grassroots fundraising network to quickly replenish her coffers. Beyond that, campaign finance laws allow her to transfer money from her presidential campaign to her House campaign should the former come to an end, provided that no individual donor exceeds federal donation limits in the course of that transfer.
“Since the contribution limit for presidential and house campaigns is the same, there would be no issue with the initial transfer, just a question of which donors would already have contributions against their limit for her House campaign,” explained David Mason, a former member of the Federal Election Commission. “These would be reported as memo entries on the house committee report along with the transfer.”
