BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Democrat Mary Landrieu has expanded her fundraising lead in her U.S. Senate re-election campaign, with nearly twice as much money in the bank as her challenger, Republican John Kennedy.
Landrieu has $2.39 million in the bank, compared to Kennedy’s $1.26 million, according to figures released by the campaigns on Thursday. Candidates for federal office were required to report their spending and fundraising figures to the Federal Elections Commission this week.
Like Kennedy, some congressional candidates running against incumbents are way behind in fundraising.
Republican U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany of Lafayette has a big money lead in the 7th Congressional District over Democratic challenger Don Cravins Jr., a state lawmaker from Opelousas. Boustany had over $700,000 in the bank as of Sept. 30, while Cravins had less than $34,000.
Democratic challenger Jim Harlan of Lacombe is using his own money, $985,000 total, in the 1st District race against U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson. Scalise raised just $37,140 during the two-week reporting period that ended Sept. 30, but his campaign said an estimated $200,000 came in at an event earlier this month with Vice President Dick Cheney.
Bill Cassidy, a Baton Rouge Republican, also had fundraising help from Cheney in his race for the 6th District against U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-New Roads. Cazayoux raised more than Cassidy in the final two weeks of September: $223,413 compared to Cassidy’s $141,362. However, that figure doesn’t include the estimated $150,000 raised at a Cheney fundraiser the same day as Scalise’s.
Cassidy had $476,881 in the bank as of Sept. 30, compared to $123,972 for Cazayoux, their reports said.
Neither candidate reported much money raised in the Democratic runoff for the 2nd District, where U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, is running for re-election while fighting indictments on federal bribery charges. Jefferson reported raising $32,666 in the two-week period, while challenger Helena Moreno reported raising $6,980 in the two-week reporting period.
In the Senate race, Landrieu raised more than $424,000 in the latest fundraising period and more than $10.4 million to date for the election, according to the latest report provided by her campaign. Kennedy, in his second bid for a U.S. Senate seat, took in more than $335,000 in contributions and has raised more than $6.3 million to date, according to the report released by his campaign.
The financing reality comes as the national GOP indicated its plans to stop advertising on Kennedy’s behalf, to focus more on states with embattled Republican incumbents. The National Republican Senatorial Committee had spent millions of dollars in ads supporting Kennedy and attacking Landrieu.
Kennedy campaign spokesman Lenny Alcivar said the NRSC’s decision to pull its ads won’t disrupt the campaign. He said plans already are in place for the final media buys for Kennedy’s, TV spots.
“We didn’t plan our advertising budget with that heavy of an NRSC buy in place,” Alcivar said. “The NRSC’s decision says more about the national geopolitical landscape than it does our race. They had to make a tough decision that in last two weeks there are some Senate races, some incumbents who are now in need of protection where that wasn’t the case two weeks ago.”
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