February 9, 2013 | By Javier Manjarres | Facebook | Twitter

Allen West’s One Million Reasons to Run For Higher Office

By Javier Manjarres

We all know that Former Congressman Allen West is working for Pajamas Media as their ‘Next Generation’s’ Director of Programming. But for how long? Not much has been said about the details of his contract with PJTV, including the duration of the contract, which is leading many to believe that West is keeping ‘all’ of his political options open, including another possible run for office.

There are also those fervent West’ supporters that believe that West could and should challenge Congressman Patrick Murphy again, but a run for a much higher office could be a better option, considering West’s incredible political appeal, and fundraising ability. During his 2012 congressional re-election race, West raised a staggering $19,337,431. According to FEC reports, West ended 2012 with $914,058 cash on hand. An opening campaign balance of $1 million is a significant amount of money for anyone who is considering to run for elected office.

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Just to give you a a better perspective of West’s fundraising ability, here are the fundraising totals from other Florida Republicans who ran for Congress in 2012.

Fmr. Congresswoman Sandy Adams (Lost)-$1,000,864
Congressman Gus Bilirakis (Won)- $758,988
Congressman Vern Buchanan (Won) -$2,730,570
Congressman Ron DeSantis (Won) -$1,155,959
Congressional Candidate Karen Harrington (Lost)-$2,057,971
Congressional Candidate Adam Hasner (Lost)-$3,374,761
Congressman Trey Racel (Won)-$1,068,123

If you tally up all of the total receipts from all of the Republican candidates who ran for Congress in the 2012 Republican primary election, and then the total receipts of those candidates who then went on to run in the general election, the total amount of receipts for Republicans was $54,567,657. Of the $54 million raised, Allen West’s $19 million garnered roughly 35.5% of that total!

While no one really knows what West has planned, even though another congressional run in 2014 is not out of the picture, it is highly unlikely.

Even though West lost his re-election bid, he continues to be one of the most influential and respected conservative voices in the nation. West could very well take the path that outgoing U.S. Senator Jim DeMint has taken and latch on to prominent conservative think tank like the Heritage Foundation, or he may even start his own Political Action Committee (PAC) and could become a ‘king-maker” of sorts.

While the future holds many possibilities for Allen West, one thing is for sure- West will be ‘front and center’ with his sharp criticisms of Democrats whose members are increasingly the true “extremists” as well as the establishment wing of the Republican party which has not supported West as well as they should have since he made his initial foray into politics.

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