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U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston continues to set the fundraising pace in the Republican U.S. Senate race, but businessman David Perdue remains in range by continuing to dip into his personal wealth.
The two campaigns revealed their hauls for May and June on Thursday, with less than two weeks to go until the July 22 runoff election and as a television ad war rages from the candidates and outside Super PACs. Kingston raised $1.6 million, while Perdue raised $974,000 from others and loaned his campaign $500,000.
Kingston spent $1.74 million in the closing weeks of the primary and opening weeks of the runoff, leaving him with $1.16 million in the bank. Perdue spent $1.15 million and was left with $783,000 on hand.
Perdue has now donated or loaned more than $3.1 million to his campaign since he entered the race a year ago, while bringing in $2.65 million from outside sources.
Kingston relied heavily on political action committees, which chipped in $500,000 from May 1 through July 2. As the last congressman standing after the primary – which saw U.S. Reps. Phil Gingrey and Paul Broun fall short — Kingston stood to benefit from Washington-based PACs that had remained neutral earlier in the race.
Kingston, of Savannah, had received less than $400,000 from PACs since entering the race in May 2013, before getting a flood in the past two months. Perdue, of Sea Island, has raised just $29,000 from PACs in the entire election cycle.
The full details of donors to both campaigns were not immediately available.
The winner of this month’s GOP runoff faces Democrat Michelle Nunn and Libertarian Amanda Swofford in November. Nunn’s fundraising totals are not due until next week because she does not have a primary runoff.
While Kingston seized the advantage early in the nine-week runoff, the race seems to have tightened, said Eric Tanenblatt, a longtime Georgia Republican operative who is remaining publicly neutral in the runoff.
“Jack did a very good job right after the primary of consolidating his victory, getting a lot of endorsements and showing a lot of momentum from grass-roots folks across the state,” Tanenblatt said.
“But the Fourth of July is really the start of the runoff period, and what you’re seeing by these numbers, in terms of what the money is and what the current polling is, shows this is really going to be horse race to the finish.”
The candidates’ numbers provide only a partial picture of the big spending in this runoff, the longest in Georgia’s history.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has promoted Kingston with $1.4 million of television ads in the runoff. Also in the congressman’s corner is a Super PAC called the Southern Conservatives Fund, guided by longtime Kingston pal Eric Johnson, the former president pro tem of the state Senate. The group has spent $550,000 on pro-Kingston runoff ads.
Perdue, meanwhile, has been bolstered by Citizens for a Working America PAC, which does not reveal its donors. The PAC has spent $1 million on runoff ads attacking Kingston, including one referencing The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s reporting on Khalid Satary, who is under investigation by the FBI into the alleged funneling of illegal straw donations to Kingston.
In a heated Republican runoff to replace Gingrey in the 11th Congressional District, which stretches from Buckhead into Cherokee and Bartow counties, former state Sen. Barry Loudermilk far outraised former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr. But Barr had more cash heading into the final stretch, with an assist from his own bank account.
Loudermilk, of Cassville, raised $285,528, spent $239,946 and had $135,463 on hand. Barr, of Smyrna, raised $154,394, put in $40,283 of his own money, spent $122,156 and had $168,669 on hand.
In the 10th District, which includes parts of Gwinnett County and stretches east to the Augusta suburbs and south nearly to Dublin, former minister Jody Hice raised more than trucking executive Mike Collins, but they had about the same amount of cash.
Hice, of Monroe, who's raised eyebrows with some past statements on Muslims, women and gays, raised $191,512, donated $1,844 to himself, spent $158,005 and had $74,428 on hand.
Collins, of Jackson, the son of former U.S. Rep. Mac Collins, raised $134,001, loaned himself $25,000, spent $192,553 and had $77,260 on hand. Collins’ personal contribution to the campaign now stands at $176,000.
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