Valerie Plame raises nearly $450K for congressional bid last quarter

Former CIA operative Valerie Plame, who has launched a Democratic run for Congress in New Mexico, raised nearly $450,000 last quarter, nearly double her total from the previous filing period.

Plame’s campaign said in a Monday statement that it raised $446,749 between July 1 and Sept. 30 from more than 16,600 individual donors. The average donation was $26.87. 

The campaign has raised a total of more than $683,000 since Plame announced she was running for Congress in May.{mosads} 

“It’s encouraging to see all the thousands of supporters who want to be a part of this team and agree with our message,” Plame said in the statement. “I’m proud that we are doing this by sticking to our progressive values like refusing corporate PAC money and with an average contribution of less than $27.”

She added that the average contribution amount and number of donations reflect “a lot of the growing support we’re hearing on the ground when we’re traveling the district.”

The campaign last month released a viral ad resembling a movie trailer that emphasized Plame’s CIA experience, showing her driving a Chevy Camaro backwards along a desert road.

She is running for the seat held by Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who has launched a Senate bid. 

When she was in the CIA, Plame’s identity was leaked by the George W. Bush administration, which she has said was revenge for statements made by her then-husband. 

Plame was the subject of controversy two years ago when she tweeted an article that falsely claimed American Jews are pushing for wars in the Middle East. She later apologized for tweeting the article, which was widely condemned as anti-Semitic.