Ethics open cash spigot for Dems (DeLay/Cunningham challengers)

[Rose Siding]

Ethics allegations against two prominent House Republicans have boosted the fundraising efforts of their Democratic challengers.

Former Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) announced yesterday that he raised more than $500,000 during the first two months of his campaign to unseat House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

The DeLay-Lampson race promises to be one of the most expensive in the country, given DeLay’s prominence and fundraising ability and the determination of national Democrats to throw the majority leader from office.
....
With his announcement, Lampson joins California Democrat Francine Busby, who is challenging embattled Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.), as the beneficiary of negative news reports surrounding a Republican incumbent.

Busby’s campaign raised $64,000 of its $100,000 second quarter total in the last two weeks of June, said campaign spokesman Brennan Bilberry, after a string of stories broke about a federal investigation into the sale of Cunningham’s home to the owner of a Nevada-based defense contractor that received millions in federal appropriations.

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/071205/ethics.html