April 18th, 2017 by WCBC Radio

The Baltimore Sun reports Senator  Ben Cardin — one of 25 Democratic incumbents up for re-election in 2018 — had a relatively slow first few months of fundraising this year, bringing in roughly half the amount he did during the equivalent quarter in his last election.

Cardin, who is in his second term, raised $324,553 during the first three months of the year, just over $242,000 of which came from individual donors and another $82,500 of which came from political action committees. He spent nearly $117,000, according to a summary of the report reviewed by The Baltimore Sun.

Cardin, 73, has not yet said definitively whether he will run for reelection in 2018, and will be the subject of speculation about his future until he does so. The Baltimore native has taken on a more high-profile role in Washington during his second term as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Cardin will report having $912,000 on hand at the end of March, roughly the same as the $1 million he had in the bank in the first quarter of 2011 — the equivalent quarter for his last election in 2012. In that quarter, Cardin raised $641,979 and received tens of thousands more from a joint-state fundraising effort.