So March 15 was the first campaign finance deadline (in Vermont) of 2026, and the second won’t come until July 1, mere weeks before the August primary. Yesterday was a big day, in other words, and there were some clear winners in the field. And not necessarily the winners you’d want, if you were to distribute the available Democratic dollars to the top-priority contests.

Which are, to my eye: Running a credible race for governor, rebuilding the state Senate majority, and knocking Lt. Gov. John Rodgers off his perch. It will be no shock whatsoever to learn that the usual Democratic donors seem to be paying little attention to the gubernatorial, and a lot of cash is being funneled into primary contests for safe Democratic seats. The only race where priority and cash are equivalent is in the Democratic race for lieutenant governor.

One saving grace: Many of the top fundraising candidates were drawing, in part, from unique sources of support rather than draining the mainstream Democratic pool. Many of Nikhil Goyal’s many, many donors, for instance, wouldn’t have given to anyone else.

The race for biggest moneybags of March is a virtual tie between Molly Gray and Ryan McLaren, Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor. They each raised more than $150,000, which is awfully impressive. Lookin’ like a red-hot race there.

Biggest moneybags per capita: state Senate candidate Goyal, who raised the eye-popping sum of $86,193.

Much better than expected: Recently declared Democratic candidate for governor Amanda Janoo, who cleared the $80,000 mark. That’s a really strong start, but she still has a ton of work to do.

Highest burn rate: Treasurer Mike Pieciak, who somehow managed to spend close to $60,000 in the early stages of a race for re-election he’s all but certain to win. Much of that cash went to expensive out-of-state campaign operatives. It’s almost as if he’s laying the groundwork for a seemingly inevitable run for governor.

There are your toplines. For those as obsessed with campaign cash as This Observer, more details follow.

Let’s go from the top of the ticket on down, starting with the gubernatorial contest. The incumbent, good ol’ whatshisname, sleepwalked through the early part of the cycle. The governor carried a surplus of more than $204,000 from his 2024 walkover, raised a measly $2,370 in the last nine months (the previous filing deadline was last July 1), and spent a slightly-less-measly $7,405, leaving him with just under $200,000 in cash on hand.

Janoo raised $80,201 and spent only $435. I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise that she did well, considering her successful career in the nonprofit sphere. Turns out she’s got connections. Notable names: Nancy Braus, activist, Substacker, and founder of Everyone’s Books in Brattleboro, gave the maximum $5,180 to Janoo’s campaign. So did David Warshow, the son of anti-nuke activist and green energy developer John Warshow; Burlington realtor Erin Dupuis, a past donor to David Zuckerman; Catlin Hearn, psychologist and psychotherapist from Shelburne; and Monali Mahedia, a Florida physician.

Finally, a personal blast from the past: Actor and novelist John Griesemer of Lyme, NH and his wife Faith gave a combined $5,000 to Janoo. Many moons ago, when I hosted an interview show on New Hampshire Public Radio, I talked to John about his novel No One Thinks of Greenland. It’s a fine, funny, tragic story of a secret U.S. military hospital in Greenland where the most hideously wounded soldiers from the Korean War were sent to keep them out of public view. It has nothing to do with Donald Trump’s weird obsession.

Apologies for the tangent. A couple other noteworthy names on the Janoo sheet: Renewable developer David Blittersdorf ($1,000) and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist ($250). Meanwhile Aly Richards, former head of Let’s Grow Kids and current chair of the University of Vermont Medical Center board, has been pondering a bid, and has registered her candidacy with the Secretary of State’s office. But has not formally announced or filed a campaign finance report as of this writing.

Hot take on the gubernatorial: Janoo’s total indicates that there’s some reason to hope for a more competitive challenge to Phil Scott (assuming he runs, ahem) than the Dems have managed in recent years.

Okay, the LG race. Topline: John Rodgers has a target on his back. Based on fundraising totals, it’s clear that Gray and McLaren have broad appeal. Gray raised $154,527, while McLaren’s cash donations came to $151,252. (McLaren’s campaign put out a breathless, misleading press release claiming that he had “shatter[ed] expectations” and raised “more than any other candidate in the race.” Two things about that: First, Second, Gray shattered exactly as many expectations as McLaren. Second, McLaren only bested Gray thanks to a few thousand in in-kind donations. It’s standard practice in media circles to only count cash contributions. By that measure, Gray wins by a nose.

Not to mention that McLaren outspent Gray by better than two to one, so she enters the next phase of the campaign with a $23,000 edge in cash on hand. Not a decisive advantage by any means, but if you’re judging purely by the bottom line, Gray wins.

A few notes on donor lists. Both Gray and McLaren racked up their share of core donors and a handful of eye-openers. Gray can boast the likes of Geoffrey Gund (of the very generous Gund Foundation, $5,180), Lucie Lehmann (former staffer to Sen. Barbara Mikulski and board member of the Audubon Society of Vermont, $5,180), and former governor Howard Dean ($2,000). On the other hand, Gray’s donors also include Patricia Pomerleau of the real estate/development empire ($2,500), Jerry Tarrant of That Tarrant Family ($1,000), Burlington developer Eric Farrell ($1,000) and your friend and mine, Bruce Lisman ($1,006 for some reason).

Mclaren scores better among mainstream/centrist Dem donors, including Jane Stetson ($5,180),former VDP chair Jake Perkinson ($5,180), Gregory Vaut ($5,000), former state rep Dylan Giambatista ($1,500), former secretary of state Jim Condos ($1,000), former treasurer Beth Pearce ($1,000), former governor Peter Shumlin ($1,000), former speaker Shap Smith ($500), and former party chair Dottie Deans ($250). On the other hand, McLaren supporters also include covering-all-bases Jerry Tarrant ($1,000), real estate poobah Russ Scully ($1,000), and Tom Torti, former head of the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce ($200). Also making an appearance: well-traveled journalist and PR flack Neal Goswami ($750).

McLaren has already spent close to $36,000 including: $9,026 to Texas-based Goodman Campaigns LLC, $6,000 to campaign manager Molly Moore, and $4,950 to something called Holy Smokes Productions (of Burlington), which is not listed in the Secretary of State’s business registry.

What of the incumbent, John Rodgers, you may ask. He entered this cycle with $1,272 left over from his successful but compliance-challenged 2024 campaign, raised a relatively modest $36,740 and spent $7,673, leaving him with a bit more than $30,000 in cash on hand. Nowhere near McLaren or Gray, but (a) it’s early and (b) he won’t face a contested primary. Not seriously contested, anyway. His money comes from several Usual Suspects: Lisman ($5,180), Barre Mayor and Phil Scott bestie Thom Lauzon ($5,000), Lauzon’s management company Derf Realty ($5,000), old friends Republican State Leadership Committee — Vermont PAC ($4,480), Two People Named Tarrant ($5,000), Jeffrey Myers (probably of the trash-hauling firm, $2,000), Russ Scully ($1,000), and former Democratic state representative turned centrist scold (and Lisman’s partner in funding Seven Days “accountability reporter” Hannah Bassett) Paul Ralston ($1,000).

A pair of off notes on Rodgers’ report. Listed expenditures include $2,500 to the Commons Strategy Group of Cambridge, Vermont, which is not listed in the Secretary of State’s business registry, and $427 to Imperium Advisors, a firm owned by longtime centrist functionary Ben Kinsley. Its registry expired in 2022 and has yet to be renewed.

And just for the sake of completion, the third declared Democrat in the LG race, Esther Charlestin, has yet to file a campaign finance report.

Gonna skip down to the Chittenden-Central Democratic Senate primary, where the challengers are substantially outraising the incumbents. Three-seat district, arguably the most liberal Senate district in Vermont, incumbent Phil Baruth not seeking re-election, incumbents Martine Laroque Gulick (D) and Tanya Vyhovsky (P/D) presumably running, and two Dem challengers in the race.

Neither Gulick nor Vyhovsky are acting, so far, like they’re in a competitive primary. Gulick entered the year with $4,122 left over from 2024 and only raised another $125. Vyhovsky carried $7,236 into the year and has only raised another $841.

The challengers, meanwhile. Former Emerge Vermont chief Elaine Haney would have made some headlines if not for the other guy. Haney raised an impressive $38,076 and spent $12,765, leaving her with a cash balance of $25,678. In a normal year, she’d be at the top of the class.

But she finished far behind Nikhil Goyal, who raised an astonishing $86,193. Makes former TV anchor Stewart Ledbetter look like a piker, for raising “only” $68,557 for the 2024 Chittenden-Central primary. If Goyal keeps this up, he might well set the all-time record for any candidate for Vermont legislature. The current champeen is gas magnate Skip Vallee, who spent $123,000 in a 2000 bid for state Senate in the then-unified Chittenden County district only to finish eighth in a race for six seats.

The legal limit for individual contributions to legislative candidates is $1,940. Goyal got the max from 21 separate donors, accounting for almost half of his amazing total. The bad news for him is that those people can’t give him any more unless he advances to the general election. The good news: He can swim, Scrooge McDuck-style, in his ocean of campaign cash. Goyal is well-connected in academic and Bernie Sanders circles and drew a lot of large donations from across the country. He also benefited from wealthy South Asians’ tendency to go all-out for their fellow folk who run for office.

Which makes his incredible haul a lot more palatable, if you’re worried about the Democrats’ prospects overall. Goyal, by and large, wasn’t fishing in the Vermont Democratic Lake O’ Donors.

Haney gave herself a leg up by “loaning” her campaign $5,000. Otherwise her haul came largely from familiar Democratic names: former Shumlin chief of staff Jeb Spaulding ($1,940), frequent donor Gregory Vaut ($1,940), former party executive director Julia Barnes ($1,000), Phoenix Books owner Michael DeSanto ($1,000), Shumlin himself ($1,000), Rep. Shawn Sweeney ($500), former party chair Dottie Deans ($500), former state rep Joan Lenes ($250), former attorney general Bill Sorrell ($250), and former treasurer Beth Pearce ($250). Haney also got a cool grand from real estate tycoon Ernie Pomerleau.

So, Goyal is off to the races, right? Well, not so fast. It’s really hard to evaluate the impact of big money on a legislative primary. A lot of the crucial stuff can’t be bought: Going door-to-door and appearing at any gathering that presents itself. Big TV buys are a waste. How many mailers and digital pleas can you produce before testing voters’ patience? And incumbency tends to be the dominant force in legislative primaries. To judge by 2024, when Ledbetter’s bucks bought him nothing in a race against three incumbents, one has to think that Goyal and Haney are competing for the third Democratic spot on the Chittenden-Central ballot. But surprises do happen, and both have taken the necessary initial steps to make themselves relevant.

Now let’s circle back to the other statewide contests, starting with Your Treasurer, Smilin’ Mike Pieciak. He entered the cycle with close to $206,000 left over from his 2024 ass-kicking of Republican Joshua Bechhoefer. He’s raised another $58,000 — but he’s already spent a ridiculous $125,857. He sent huge amounts to out-of-state consultancies Global Strategy Group (D.C., $40,000) and Authentic Campaign Solutions (D.C., $38,100). He paid ex-campaign manager Natalie Silver $3,000 before she decamped for New Hampshire, and spent $4,025 on a D.C.-based polling firm. Presumably that was the poll from last fall that cooled him on running for governor against Scott?

I guess these big spends help explain why there’s a faint whiff of astroturf around Pieciak’s fundraising pleas: He’s paying for top-shelf talent with a national focus and little direct knowledge of Vermont. And, again, he sure as hell doesn’t need to spend that big for a re-election race against Republican enhancement talent.

Attorney General Charity Clark has been busy calling donors in between joining multistate suits against the Trump administration. She entered the cycle with nearly $80,000 in the bank and raised another $80,709. She spent $25,758 during the reporting period, leaving her with a more-than-sufficient $153,056 in the bank. Notable donor: Atlanta-based PrizePicks ($4,000, “America’s #1 Sports Picks App”). Kinda raises a brow, given the continuing ferment around legalized and gray-area gambling. She could maybe think about returning that one.

Deputy Auditor Tim Ashe, running to succeed his boss DougHoffer, raised $53,117 and has only spent $1,692 so far, leaving him with $51,425. Should be plenty to beat the likes of H. Brooke Paige or similar.

Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas is operating at a sleepier pace. Or, considering that she’ll probably wind up running against Paige again, an appropriate pace. She entered the cycle with nearly $12,000 left over from 2024, raised a mere $4,527 and spent a modest $2,019, leaving her with $14,415 on hand. Which is probably more than she’ll really need.

On the Republican side, there’s no sign of competitive contenders making a run. They may well be stuck with a parade of tomato cans on their statewide ballot.

So. A glimmer of hope for Democrats in the gubernatorial race, overwhelming enthusiasm for defeating Rodgers, all’s fairly quiet for the other statewide offices, and a second successive bank-breaking race for Senate in Chittenden-Central. It’s early. We shall follow the course of events with absurd levels of interest.