This past week, Jon Tester’s campaign released their third-quarter finance data to the FEC. According to this data, Jon Tester’s campaign spent $60,549.34 at the Bistro Cacao in Washington D.C., dining their 69 times since January of last year. This span includes well over $200,000 in spending on meals.
According to reporting by the Daily Caller, Senator Tester was spotted downing vodka cranberries at the upscale restaurant all by himself on the Tuesday following the Biden-Trump debate in June.
The median cocktail price at the Bistro Cacao is $15 and the median entrée (or what they call “Les Plats Principaux”) is $38. A simple cup of French onion soup would run his campaign donors $15 a pop.
The FEC data also shows $10,863.79 spent at Morton’s Steakhouse, $2,957.98 at Schneider’s Liquor, and $9,154.20 at Café Berlin, all in D.C. Morton’s is the steakhouse in which Democratic New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez was caught by FBI investigators on corruption charges for colluding with Egyptian officials.
Tim Sheehy spent less than a quarter of Tester’s food budget, at about $43,000, almost all of it with catering-specific companies.
Campaigns are legally required to release finance reports to the FEC quarterly, with the most recent reports spanning July 1 through September 30 having been due on October 15. In this third quarter, Tester raised about $32 million, putting his total fundraising at $78 million. Tim Sheehy’s total fundraising amounts to just $14 million.
Despite this significant gap in cash, Sheehy has led every major poll in the last two months, and holds a polling average lead of 5.4 points with FiveThirtyEight and of 7.0 points with RealClearPolitics. The most recent major poll, done by the New York Times and Siena College, gave Sheehy a 52-44 edge over Tester.
Senator Tester’s press team has not yet responded to YCN’s request for comment on his campaign fund spending.
