One-tenth of one percent. That’s the ratio of Bernie Fensterwald‘s campaign expenditures expressed as a percentage of his net worth. As of October 14th, the Democrat challenger to House speaker-in-waiting Chris Sprowls had spent just $20,000 of his eye-popping net worth of $20 million.
Fensterwald initially claimed he was running for office because Chris Sprowls was such a bad guy.
“‘He’s not good for Pinellas county,” Fensterwald said of Sprowls, when asked why he was running. “He is ambitious, and so he’s good for that. I look at him as taking the Marco Rubio track, and we all know how that turned out.”
When he filed his campaign disclosure forms in late June, Fensterwald drew a lot of attention, but wouldn’t let on about how much of his own cash he was willing to spend to unseat Sprowls. In a profile in The Capitolist, Fensterwald hinted that he would turn up the heat on Sprowls and make Republicans “feel the Bern.”
“I’m raising money and the next financial disclosure will be much different.”
But big money never materialized for Fensterwald, and he never dipped into his personal fortune. Thus far, he’s only raised $29,383, compared with Sprowls’ $294,662. And with less than three weeks to go, it doesn’t seem likely that he’s going to put his money where his mouth is.