Democrat Nixon leads Republicans in fundraising for governor's race

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Democrat Jay Nixon raised more money than either of his likely Republican gubernatorial opponents in the past quarter, though Republicans Kenny Hulshof and Sarah Steelman each took in hundreds of thousands of dollars after their late entry into the race.

Campaign finance figures released Tuesday show Nixon, the current attorney general, raised nearly $1.5 million for his gubernatorial bid from January through March. Nixon's campaign claimed that is more than any candidate for Missouri governor has ever raised in the first quarter of an election year.

After expenses, Nixon had $2.7 million on hand as of the end of March.

Hulshof's gubernatorial campaign said the congressman raised $906,683 since announcing his candidacy for governor Jan. 29 -- one week after Republican Gov. Matt Blunt declared he would not seek re-election. A Hulshof spokesman said his gubernatorial campaign had $732,224 on hand, after expenses, at the end of March.

Hulshof also made good on an earlier pledge to donate most of the money remaining in his congressional campaign fund to the Missouri Republican Party, rather than using it for his gubernatorial bid. He transferred $200,000 from his congressional account to the state party in February and March, according to a report filed this week with the Federal Election Commission.

Steelman said she raised $658,753 from contributors during the past quarter and loaned her gubernatorial campaign $500,000.

She's the only of the three leading governor's candidates to have put her own money into the race. Steelman had planned to seek re-election as treasurer but switched course after Blunt's announcement and transferred the money she already had raised for the treasurer's race to her gubernatorial campaign.

After expenses, Steelman's campaign said, she had more than $1.4 million on hand as of the end of March.

All three candidates issued statements claiming they had strong fundraising quarters that show widespread support for their candidacies.

Political scientist Dave Robertson said the fundraising figures show all three top candidates should have sufficient money to get their messages out to voters through various kinds of advertisements.

"Nixon continues to sail along at a quite strong pace for the general election in the fall and should be in pretty good position to compete with anybody the Republicans decide to throw at him, at least in terms of money," said Robertson, of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Although Steelman had twice as much money in the bank as Hulshof for the August primary election, that's due largely to her personal loan and the fact that she began the governor's race with almost $300,000 she had raised for her treasurer's campaign.

If Hulshof's strong two months of fundraising continues, "I would expect Hulshof to wind up with a significant surplus over Steelman" in campaign money, Robertson said.

The challenge for either Hulshof or Steelman is "if they spend all this money in the primary, they're going to have to raise money hand over fist between August and November to catch up to Nixon," who faces no strong challenge in the Democratic primary, Robertson said. "But I think they have a shot at doing that."

Hulshof has a chance of getting back some of the money he gave to the state Republican Party from his congressional campaign committee. That's because the state party can contribute to various local political party committees, each of which can donate up to $13,500 cash to a candidate, plus $13,500 in in-kind contributions, in both the primary and general elections.

A Hulshof spokesman said he gave the money to the party to help others.

"Kenny wants to make sure that the Republican ticket in Missouri succeeds this year, and this is one of the best ways to help make that happen," campaign spokesman Scott Baker said.

Hulshof's federal report also shows that he returned $15,345 in contributions to his congressional campaign.

On the Net:

Missouri Ethics Commission: http://www.mec.mo.gov