Capitol View®

It’s raining buckets of money

The AP is reporting...

Minnesota DFL Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar

said Tuesday she raised $1.26 million in the first quarter of the

year, a steep increase over her last reporting period.

Klobuchar, the Hennepin County attorney, said she finished with

about $2.5 million in the bank. Overall, her campaign said, she had

raised $3.7 million in the election so far.

Klobuchar's first-quarter numbers nearly doubled the amount she

raised in the previous reporting period. In the fourth quarter of

last year, she raised $700,000.

Klobuchar's DFL opponent, Ford Bell, did not immediately release

his figures Tuesday, nor did the Republican candidate, U.S. Rep.

Mark Kennedy.

The filing deadline is Saturday.

Update (4:07 pm): Mark Kennedy outraised (did I just make up that verb?) Klobuchar with $1.475 million raised in the first quarter and still has $3.4 million on hand. In a release, the Kennedy campaign notes that $100,000 of Klobuchar's dough came with a visit by Sen. John Kerry.

So updating the money race:

Candidate Funds
Mark Kennedy $5,126,224
Amy Klobuchar $3,722,327
Ford Bell $465,793
Michael Cavlan Unknown
Robert Fitzgerald Unknown
Harold Shudlick $5,098

BTW, I see that the FEC has asked for more information from the Kennedy campaign regading the '05 year-end report. Apparently the FEC is not satisfied that the identity of contributors was properly provided. The response date is Thursday.