It's been billed as the most expensive Utah governor's race in history, and it's living up to it.
At Wednesday's campaign finance filing deadline, Republican Jon Huntsman Jr. had raised $2.5 million and spent $2.4 million. Democrat Scott Matheson Jr. had raised $1.9 million and spent $978,000.
However, the man who has spent the most in the governor's race is not even in the contest anymore — and hasn't been since May: Millionaire medical firm magnate Fred Lampropoulos, in total, spent more than $2.9 million of his own money over the past 18 months before finishing third and out of the running in the May 8 state GOP convention.
When all the major party candidates' gubernatorial spending so far this year is added up, more than $8.1 million has been spent trying to get a job that pays just over $100,000 a year.
Under Utah law, any candidate for legislative or statewide office can be booted off the ballot for failing to file campaign reports on time. No Republican missed Wednesday's filing. But at least one Democratic legislative candidate — Gene Bradford in Senate District 13 — may well have his name removed from the ballot, said Amy Naccarato, state elections director. Eight minor party legislative candidates also didn't file on time, she said.
While Lampropoulos set a gubernatorial personal spending record, Huntsman — the oldest son of Utah billionaire industrialist/philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr. — is no shrinking violet when it comes to spending his own cash, either.
Between Huntsman Jr., his wife, immediate family members and the Huntsman chemical corporation, the candidate has put in just over $900,000 of the $2.5 million the campaign has raised. The $900,000 includes in-kind donations as well as cash and loans.
Overall, that's 36 percent of Huntsman's fund raising.
Self-financing
Campaign manager Jason Chaffetz said voters shouldn't be surprised that Huntsman and his family are helping fund the race.
"I think it's only natural that a candidate invests in his own campaign. I would think voters would worry if somebody didn't," Chaffetz said. Huntsman is also raising money "the old-fashioned way," he said — asking other people for it. "There's a very solid balance here."
Nearly $1.3 million of the campaign's cash came from inside Utah. Some 28 percent of the contributions — almost $489,000 — was from out of state.
Some of the out-of-state contributions were the result of a recent fund-raiser in Chicago. Next week, Huntsman will travel to New York City to solicit contributions. But his biggest contributor is Overstock.com executive Patrick Byrne, of Park City, who gave $75,000. Byrne is a family friend, said Chaffetz.
Chaffetz said a $1,000 contribution from the Sandy-based Taiwanese Association was returned. Chaffetz said keeping it would have violated a campaign pledge not to accept contributions from companies that do business with the state.
Huntsman hopes to raise $3.5 million by November. To date, the campaign has spent more than $2.4 million, more than twice Matheson's spending so far. Chaffetz said unlike the Democratic candidate, Huntsman had a convention battle and a primary.
"This may be the most hotly contested gubernatorial race in Utah's history. We've had to run three full-blown campaigns," Chaffetz said. "Our opponent was basically handed the nomination and hasn't had to run a race until now."
Chaffetz added much of that self-financing is loans that Huntsman Jr. expects to pay back to himself at a later date.
However, Huntsman Jr. has not paid back any of those loan funds yet, and with last week's Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll showing Huntsman's lead over Matheson shrinking, those loans may not be paid back this campaign season — the cash will go to TV ads, not back into Huntsman's pocket.
Huntsman's lieutenant governor running mate, Gary Herbert, appeared before the House GOP caucus Wednesday, telling fellow Republican officeholders that the Huntsman/Herbert team is confident it will win the governorship, "but we can't do it alone, we need your help."
Donors big, little
Matheson, meanwhile, has been tapping a number of traditional Democratic fund-raising sources. His biggest contributor is the Washington, D.C., party political action committee Democratic Governors. It has given Matheson in total $105,000, $40,000 of which is listed as in-kind research and voter lists. Overall, the PAC has given Matheson 9 percent of his funds and will contribute more over the next six weeks, said campaign manager Mike Zuhl.
"We're pleased where we are in fund raising," said Zuhl. "We have more than 2,500 individual donors, many donating $100 or less. Sixty percent of our donors are those small donors."
But a few weren't.
The Utah Education Association, the main teacher union, has given $17,546; the Utah Public Employees Association, the main state worker union, donated $38,124. Both those donations are in-kind, paying for part of Matheson's TV advertising production costs, said Zuhl.
Matheson has $206,000 in cash, Huntsman only $79,000.
Huntsman's relatively low cash balance is not a problem for that campaign. "We presume (Huntsman) could write a personal check for what he needs," said Zuhl.
Other filings
Lampropoulos has said previously that he plans to stay active in Utah politics. He still has his own PAC operating. His personal spending of $2.9 million comes through adding up his PAC activities for 2002, 2003 and 2004; his campaign account itself for 2004, and an estimated $325,000 that Lampropoulos spent out of his own pocket on 12 month's worth of radio ads.
The ad money, which shows up on no report, paid for one- to two-minute homilies that ran on KSL and other leading Utah radio stations in 2003 in which Lampropoulos talked about what is right with America. He plans to restart those radio ads in January, he said recently, even though he can't say now if he'll run again or what office he'll seek.
Other candidates' filings:
Nolan Karras, whom Huntsman defeated in the June GOP gubernatorial primary election, raised $1.105 million and spent $1.134 million.
Gov. Olene Walker, defeated in the May 8 GOP convention, raised $205,011 and spent $204,352.
Utah House Speaker Marty Stephens, also defeated in the convention's governor race, raised $262,526 and spent 270,739.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has raised $420,170 and spent $339,351, in seeking re-election.
Greg Skordas, the Democratic AG candidate, has raised $113,110 and spent $60,886.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com