When you're running for the U.S. Senate and House, it's good to have a lot of campaign cash.
And at least Utah incumbents running for re-election certainly have the money, new filings with the Federal Election Commission show.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who seeks a record-setting 36 years in the Senate, has $2.5 million in the bank. He's raised money over the past year like never before, says his campaign manager, Dave Hansen.
Hatch is facing Democrat Pete Ashdown, who has raised just under $100,000 and lent his campaign around $60,000 so far.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has $1 million, about where he was in June 2004 before his re-election two years ago, reports show.
State Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, is the Republican trying to knock Matheson out of office this year. A lawyer/developer, Christensen is worth between $5.75 million and $26.75 million, according to his personal financial filings with the U.S. House.
Christensen says he will spend some of his own money on the race, although he steadfastly refuses to say how much.
His new report shows he's lent his campaign $150,000 so far. Including his own cash, Christensen, who did not have a primary, has raised $265,000. He's spent $162,000 and has more than $100,000 in cash on hand. A number of his individual donations come from fellow GOP Utah House members and former Republican candidates in Matheson's 2nd Congressional District.
Matheson has raised $1.3 million since his last campaign and spent $361,000. He spent more than $2 million on his 2004 re-election, records show.
It's tough for challengers to raise political action committee money. And Christensen has only $10,000 in PAC donations, all from Hatch's own PAC.
Matheson has raised $817,000 from PACs. But when Matheson voted for a foreign trade agreement this spring, big labor unions said they'd boycott his campaign. And his new report shows over the last three months he's only received $2,000 from labor PACs, not counting government employee PACs.
As in previous elections, Matheson is getting strong support from fellow Democratic U.S. House members. Including a $2,000 donation from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Matheson received $16,000 from Democratic colleagues over the past three months.
In the other big race this year, Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, ended up doing a fine job of fund raising in his tough challenge from fellow Republican John Jacob.
Through the June 27 GOP primary — where Cannon ended up easily defeating Jacob — Cannon raised $969,000. He spent $864,000. A millionaire like Jacob, Cannon has donated $136,000 to his own race.
Jacob gave his campaign $413,000, according to his new report. He raised $459,000, and so he ended up funding 90 percent of his unsuccessful challenge to Cannon.
Cannon now faces Democrat Christian Burridge in the heavily Republican district. Burridge's report had not been filed by Friday night, the deadline not being until Saturday.
In Utah's 1st Congressional District, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, also had not filed his report by Friday evening. His challenger, Democrat Steve Olsen had lent his campaign nearly $17,000. Including the loan he'd raised more than $20,000 and had $1,343 in cash on hand, Olsen's report shows.
National political pundits rank Hatch's seat as safe for Republicans, although Ashdown, a millionaire through his ownership of Internet provider XMission, promises to make a race of it come the November election.
Ashdown, a tech-savvy candidate who is using the Internet to campaign in a number of creative ways, recently said that he has not been as successful in fund raising on the Internet as he had hoped. Ashdown has raised $92,000, of which around $61,000 comes in loans from Ashdown himself, said Brett Garner, his campaign manager. Ashdown has only $12,800 in cash.
While incumbents like Hatch and Matheson get a lot of special interest political action committee monies (Hatch has $1.6 million in PAC contributions), Ashdown has no PAC contributions. Garner says Ashdown has not decided yet whether he'll even accept PAC contributions.
Hansen says Hatch fund-raised extra hard the past two years "because it is good to have it before you need it. And sometimes you don't know if you'll need it or not." Hansen went full-time for Hatch in September 2004, nearly two years ago, setting up a fund-raising juggernaut.
Hansen was preparing for a tough intraparty challenge, which ultimately didn't materialize. State House Majority Whip Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, announced last summer he would challenge Hatch. But Urquhart dropped out last fall. And while several other Republicans filed against Hatch, he easily dispatched them in the state GOP convention.
"We are about $1.5 million ahead of where (Hatch's) campaign has been in the past" re-election years, notes Hansen. "We were preparing for a tough convention (battle), even a primary," neither of which happened.
Some of the interesting Hatch expenditures:
His Senate campaign has "loaned" his failed 2000 U.S. presidential campaign $107,000. "The presidential campaign was in the hole that much. After this year's campaign, we'll hit it hard (in fund raising) to pay off that presidential debt," says Hansen.
Hatch "catches a ride" on the Leucadia private jet "if it is going to or from Washington, D.C." Leucadia is a firm owned by well-known Democrat Ian Cumming. But one of his top executives is former Republican consultant Bud Scruggs. "The senator calls Bud and he catches a ride; we pay (Leucadia) the cost of a first-class airfare," says Hansen. (Scruggs sits on the Deseret Morning News' board of directors.)
Hatch is paying Jim Bennett, a son of Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, to run Hatch's campaign Web site.
Hatch is paying pollster Dan Jones & Associates (who does polling for the Morning News and KSL-TV) $1,000 a month as a consulting retainer, as well as paying Jones for any specific polls he may do for the Hatch campaign.
Hatch is paying the law firm of Dan Berman for campaign office space, as well regularly paying the Girl Scouts of America $15,000 for larger office space for the campaign. When Hatch was chairman of the Senate's Judiciary Committee, he once pushed Berman, a Democrat, for a federal appeals court judgeship.
Campaign cash on hand
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) — $2.5 million
Pete Ashdown (D) — $12,800
Rep. Jim Matheson (D) — $1 million
State Rep. LaVar Christensen (R) — $104,000
Rep. Chris Cannon (R) — $136,000
Christian Burridge (D) — NA*
Rep. Rob Bishop (R) — NA*
Steve Olsen (D) — $1,343
*report not in yet to the Federal Election Commission
source: Federal Election Commission and candidates' campaigns
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com