Jerry Brown Reveals His Fund-Raising Numbers -- Amassed With a Contribution Limit One Quarter of Gavin Newsom's

Jerry Brown says he's socking away 95 percent of the money he's fund-raised -- which is a lot

​Tomorrow is the day state political junkies have circled on their calendars -- Form 460 Day! Gavin Newsom, Jerry Brown, and other candidates for higher office are mandated to turn in the forms detailing their fund-raising and expenditures. In short, we get to see how much each candidate has in the tank.

Brown, however, is filing today. SF Weekly's phone call to his contribution committee was picked up by the Attorney General himself -- "We're a grass-roots campaign, man" -- and he gladly divulged his totals thus far. Perhaps most importantly, since Brown has not yet declared himself to be a gubernatorial candidate -- and is technically fund-raising for another term as Attorney General -- he is limited to contributions of $6,500 for the primary and another $6,500 for the general election. Declared gubernatorial candidates such as Newsom are eligible to collect $25,900 per election cycle -- a ceiling of $51,800.

The AG said he's raised more than $8 million overall and, as of the June 30 reporting period, has a shade under $7.4 million in the bank. Since that time, he's kept up the fund-raising and has a current war chest of $7.6 million. Finally, in the period of January to June 30 of this year, Brown says he's raised $3.4 million and spent only $170,000. That means that Brown is socking away more than 95 percent of the money he's raising -- a percentage the aggressively barnstorming Newsom can't possibly match. 

We haven't yet reached Newsom or any of his people. "Let's see if he picks up his own phone," said Brown. He didn't, and a young man told us he'd get "someone in media relations" to get back to us real soon. In any event, it appears Brown has taken a commanding lead over Newsom, smaller contribution limit be damned : Newsom's campaign reported earlier this month it has $1.1 million on-hand -- after raising $1.6 million in the same time frame Brown picked up $3.4 million. Perhaps this explains the recent tumult over at Team Newsom. But wait -- the news gets worse for San Francisco's mayor.
 

Gavin Newsom is forced to play catch-up...

​Because Brown has only accepted contributions based on the $6,500 limit, if he were to, say, declare his intention to run for governor, he could go back to those very same people and max out to the higher limit. The figure of $7.4 million at hand could double or triple very quickly -- if Brown ever declares for governor.

We asked when Brown would get around to this. His response: "I don't know. I don't have to make my decision for several months and I've got plenty to do as Attorney General -- and I'm raising money."

When it came to his opponent, Newsom, Brown couldn't help but add: "Good luck getting through to him."

We're waiting.