Tong Makes Friday Trash Run. Fundraising Dire as Convention Approaches.

William Tong’s campaign for the United States Senate has not broken through to the top tier a month before the Democratic nominating convention begins. The Stamford Democrat chose Friday afternoon on Friday the 13th to announce he had nothing but bad luck in first quarter fundraising.

Tong, serving his third term in the General Assembly, raised only $186,210.48 in the first quarter of the year. His campaign reports having cash on hand of $226,848.58. No word on what’s owed. While Tong has more than the 57 cents he bangs on about his father clutching when he arrived in the United States, it’s not enough to mount a credible primary effort against opponents Christopher Murphy and Susan Bysiewicz. The privately educated Tong was counting on a debate performance breakthrough. It has not happened.

Insiders say Tong is short of the 15% of the delegates he’ll need to qualify for the August primary ballot. If he falls short of that threshold, Tong will have to engage in the expensive and time-consuming task of collecting thousands of signatures from registered Democrats.