PA 8th:
Fitzpatrick says he's raised over $500K

Republican Mike Fitzpatrick announced late Friday that he has raised over $500,000 in the two months since he launched his campaign to regain Pennsylvania's 8th District Congressional seat - the seat he lost in 2006 after only one term.

Official campaign finance reports won't be filed until later this week. But, according to the website PA2010.com, Fitzpatrick claimed that 96 percent of the money had come from individual donors, while 97 percent of it had come from within Pennsylvania.

“Since the beginning of this campaign we have been overwhelmed by the response,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “People from across the 8th District have stepped forward like never before. Individuals who have never donated money and perhaps have never even been involved in a political campaign are joining with me to help take back our country.”

The 8th District is based in Bucks County, and includes both affluent suburbs in the northern part of the county, blue collar middle class suburbs in the southern part near the Delaware River and even a tiny sliver of Northeast Philadelphia. Fitzpatrick narrowly lost the seat to Democrat Patrick Murphy amidst the 2006 Democratic wave. Murphy then won re-election in 2008 by 15 points - six more than Barack Obama's margin in the district in the Presidential election.