Libby Casey, APRN – Washington DC
In the race for U.S. Senate, Joe Miller raised more money in August and September than his two main opponents combined, but write in candidate Lisa Murkowski enters the final push before Election Day with the most cash on hand.
Candidates had until the end of business Friday to send in campaign reports detailing how much money they raised and spent between Aug. 5 and the end of September.
The reporting period covers the weeks leading up to the Aug. 24 primary and the following month. Miller raked in nearly four-times more money than Murkowski did in August and September. After Murkowski lost the Republican primary, national GOP leaders disavowed her and threw their support – both in name and dollars – to Miller as their Party’s winner.
That helped him raise $1.1 million in August and September, a staggering boost from the $84,000 he had on-hand leading up to the period. But Miller has spent nearly half of his war chest, and entered October with $680,000 in his coffers.
Murkowski started this month with nearly double that on hand: $1.1 million. She waited three weeks after Election Day to launch her write-in campaign, but money did keep coming in. In August and September she raised more than $300,000.
Scott McAdams, the Democratic candidate, collected more than double what Murkowski did. He pulled in $660,000, a far cry from the mere $16,000 he had going into August.
McAdams hits the final weeks of campaign season with $400,000 in his campaign’s bank account.
During the last reporting period, Murkowski out-spent the competition, she poured nearly $1 million into her race, while Miller spent $560,000, and McAdams about half that. What the campaign numbers do not show are the interest groups that are spending their own money on the race.
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