Johnson Cash

Argus Leader:

In a plush Washington, D.C., conference room earlier this month, more than a dozen Democratic senators and their guests gathered for a reception to benefit South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson.

The June 14 event, in the Veterans of Foreign War conference room - a windowless room lined with paintings of Washington monuments and 300-pound cherry wood tables - was a quiet affair hosted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Lobbyists came and went, and the reception was over in about an hour and a half.

"It was an in-and-out type event: Come in, have an hors d'oeuvre, say hi to Sen. Reid," said Wayne Rankin, an assistant director at the VFW.

Suggested contributions to Johnson's campaign were $2,500 for hosts and $1,000 for attendees.

The fundraiser was the latest hosted by Senate Democrats in their effort to shake the money tree for Johnson's 2008 re-election campaign. Johnson, who has been sidelined since December while recovering from a brain hemorrhage, was not at the event.

Those efforts have proved fruitful: Johnson's campaign raised more than $660,000 in the first quarter of 2007, leaving him with $1.2 million in the bank and putting his campaign on pace to match the amount he raised in the last election. In the 2002 race, Johnson raised $5.6 million.

With vigorous fundraising continuing, his campaign is expected to report a sizeable increase at the close of the current reporting period, which ends June 30.

To some, Johnson's rapidly filling war chest is a sure sign that he's a candidate in 2008. But no official announcement has been made, nor is there a timeline for Johnson's return to the Senate.

And that leads to another question: If Johnson doesn't seek a third term in the Senate, what happens to all that money?

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